The Out Of The Blue Job
by Ultrawoman
Summary: AU early S3. A young woman Nate knows very well shows up unannounced and has the team curious, but this isn't just a random visit. Marissa Kennedy needs the kind of help the Leverage team are famous for, perhaps in a bigger way than even she realised...
1. Chapter 1

**A/N: This was originally written for the Leverage Big Bang over at LJ (thebigbangjob). In October 2010, it was posted all in one run (11 chapters total) and in journal format, so it didn't get a lot of readership. Thought I'd post it over here for anyone who might want to read it. One chapter a day for eleven days, thats the plan!**

_**Disclaimer: Leverage and all recognisable characters belongs to Devlin, Rogers, Downey, TNT... pretty much not me. New characters are mine.**_

Chapter 1

Eliot had to think that Nate was just a little dumb wanting to live in a place which four known thieves each had a key to, even if they were the good guys these days and had kind of learnt to trust each other in a strange way. Of course, free entry to the place the team called an office most of the time came in handy when a person realised they had left something behind and wanted to get it back, such was the case today with the hitter and his jacket.

Letting himself into the apartment, he called out for Nate just in case the guy was home. When there was no reply, he just closed the door behind himself and set about hunting for his left behind clothing. It wasn't anywhere obvious, but then Eliot wasn't entirely sure where he might've left the jacket anyway, or where Nate or anyone else might've put it after the event when they were straightening up or whatever. The idea occurred that it might be upstairs, that maybe Sophie had filed it away in Nate's closet by mistake. He looked towards the stairs and got quite the shock when he suddenly realised he was not alone.

A pair of long shapely and decidedly female legs were descending the spiral staircase, bare from the toes all the way up to a very short robe... that wasn't a robe at all.

"That's my jacket," he said without thinking, his brain lagging a little behind his eyes that travelled up then to the face of a woman he didn't know, but would certainly like to. "Hi."

"Hey," replied the stranger, a smile playing at her lips as she realised whoever this guy was he was totally checking her out. "Your jacket, huh? I figured it was a little young for Nate," she commented as she looked over the one item of clothing she was wearing over her underwear.

"You know Nate?" asked Eliot, his curiosity the only thing strong enough to over-ride his alpha-male instincts.

"From way back," she said, with a vague gesture over her shoulder. "God, it's gotta be... four years since I saw him last," she realised as she thought on it.

Eliot opened his mouth to speak but never got the chance as the mystery woman pushed her dark curls over her shoulder and walked on by to the kitchen. The hitter turned himself around and watched as she searched through the cupboards, going up on her tip-toes to see better and revealing the black lace she wore beneath _his_ jacket.

"Who are you?" he asked then, his eyes closed a moment just so he could concentrate on what was important here, like the fact someone may or may not have broken into the Leverage team's base of operations.

"You really thinking about my name right now?" she chuckled in response, peering over her shoulder at him. "I'm Marissa," she told him. "and you are...?"

"Eliot," he admitted, watching her lips curve into a smile.

"Really?" she checked, closing the cupboard door and turning round to face him, a bottle of Hardison's orange soda in her hand now. "Y'know, you don't look much like an Eliot," she told him, leaning on the counter as she observed him and giving him yet another view he wasn't about to complain about.

"It's the name my Momma gave me," the hitter shrugged as he wandered over, echoing her position on the opposite side of the counter.

"Hmm," Marissa looked at him a little too intently, smile wavering some before she finally spoke again. "Wait a second... Eliot?" she echoed the name he had given her. "You're not Eliot Spencer, are you?" she checked, causing an immediate look of worry on his face.

His mouth open and closed like a landed fish as his mind spun in six directions all at once. Eliot couldn't help but wonder if he was being an idiot here. This woman could be anybody, he knew that. She could be an undercover cop, an assassin maybe, either way a whole lot more dangerous than she appeared. He didn't want her to know he was panicking but it was a little late for that apparently.

"Hey, don't look so worried," she told him with a shake of her head, rounding the counter and coming at him, even as he warily backed up a step. "I'm not out to get you or anything," she assured him. "Actually..." she went on, sliding in closer, reaching out a hand to his shoulder, "I might just be your biggest fan," she told him.

"Is that right?" he asked as she gazed up at him through dark lashes. "I have a hard time believing a nice girl like you knows anything about what I do," he said seriously, a little on his guard just because he still wasn't entirely clear on who he was dealing with, but slowly getting more than a little distracted by the view he had down inside what was in fact his own jacket.

"Well, first of all, who said I was a nice girl?" said Marissa, leaning in impossibly close, forcing Eliot to back up a couple of steps before he even realised what was happening. "And second of all, I know all kinds of interesting things," she whispered near his ear.

"Oh yeah?" he checked, his arms going around her body just because they had nowhere else to go, and it was probably a good thing since the very next moment, her weight pushed him back, his legs hitting the arm of the couch and tripping him onto it.

Marissa landed on top of him, her lips on his as was her intention. Eliot ought to have stopped her, but at the end of the day he was just a red-blooded male, and there was very little for him to argue about if a gorgeous young woman wanted to get him into a compromising position. Besides it wasn't as if she was carrying weapons, there was absolutely nowhere for her to hide anything, but then hiding didn't seem to be her intention, so much as revealing everything!

"All I'm saying is that maybe you should try to be a little more social," Sophie suggested as she and Nate walked back up to his apartment, having just handed over good news and cash to their latest clients.

"And here was me thinking you'd rather I wasn't drunk," pointed out Nate as he exited the elevator a step behind her.

Sophie let out an exasperated sigh as she turned and leaned her back against the wall by his door.

"Nate, you can be social without drinking, you know," she said, as he located the key to let them into the apartment. "I just think, well, you're a bit short on family and friends, and you haven't been on a date in how long?" she asked, apparently a rhetorical question as Nate ushered the grifter inside ahead of him, still talking away. "I mean... Oh blimey!" she suddenly exclaimed, turning her back on the sight before her.

Nate was similarly taken aback to find a shirtless Eliot, now on top of a near-naked young woman right there on his couch, making out like it was going out of style, and apparently eager to clear all four bases, up until the moment he and Sophie had walked in.

Eliot swore colourfully under his breath as he rolled off the girl, realising just in time that she'd gotten his pants unfastened when he wasn't paying attention.

"Nate, Sophie," he greeted them awkwardly, prompting the grifter to peer carefully over her shoulder just as Eliot finished buckling up his belt.

Behind him, his would-be sexual partner quickly refastened her bra, pulling the throw from the back of the couch around her body now they had company.

It was only as Eliot stepped aside to reach for his boots that Nate and Sophie got a proper view of their young lady visitor.

"Marissa?" Nate's eyes were comically wide and there was a horrible moment when Eliot actually thought he'd almost slept with another of the masterminds exes.

That was proven to be false in the extreme the very next moment, though Marissa's response didn't make him feel in any way better.

"Hey, Uncle Nate," she waved one hand awkwardly as she got to her feet.

Eliot looked between the two of them, and honestly kind of wished the ground would swallow him whole right now.

_To Be Continued..._


	2. Chapter 2

_**(For disclaimer, etc. - see chapter 1)**_

Chapter 2

"_Uncle _Nate?" Sophie echoed the two words she had never heard put together in a sentence up to now.

"Marissa is my sister's daughter," said the mastermind, though his eyes never shifted from the young woman hovering by the couch, wearing nothing but underwear and wrapped in a throw at this point. "My niece," he added, as if further explanation were needed, his gaze shifting to Eliot and taking on a death glare the like of which he'd never seen before from the man.

"Nate, I didn't..." the hitter began, though he was pretty sure whatever he said was not going to make this situation any better.

"Put your shirt back on," the older man interrupted, as Sophie cut between the two of them, hoping to diffuse the awkward situation at least a little.

"Marissa," she said, reaching for the girl's free hand, the other one holding the throw tight around her shoulders. "Hi, I'm Sophie, I'm a... _friend_ of your uncle," she introduced herself. "How about we go upstairs and find you some clothes since yours seemed to have... vanished?" she said, glancing over her shoulder at Nate.

She could see the anger bubbling beneath the calm exterior and knew there was bound to be a fight between him and Eliot before long. In the meantime, she wanted to focus on getting this poor embarrassed young thing into some clothes, hoping that whilst they were gone Nate and Eliot didn't have a good try at killing each other.

"Today has kinda turned into a mess," Marissa explained as Sophie ushered her up the stairs. "See, the bus hit this huge puddle right after I got off and completely soaked me, so after I showered I didn't have anything to put on..." she was saying, as the girls disappeared from view.

Eliot finished buttoning his shirt, pushed his hair out of his face and tried to find something reasonable to say. Unfortunately, so far he was coming up empty. Part of him thought maybe he should apologise, but he didn't really know what for. When this had started, he had no idea Marissa was related to Nate, and even if he had, it wasn't exactly like he'd been the one to start anything. She was the one that came onto him, quite literally landed on top of him, and yet explaining that to Nate right now didn't exactly appeal.

"Whatever you're thinking of saying; don't," the mastermind advised, immediately going to the kitchen to pour himself a stiff drink, before remembering he had no booze right now.

Full of anger and frustration, he slammed down a mug from the cupboard and smacked the coffee machine for good measure. Eliot got the distinct impression that his face was being imagined in those violent moments, or other parts of his anatomy.

"Maybe I should go," he considered aloud, taking Nate's lack of answer as agreement and picking up the jacket he'd been wearing to leave.

The other piece of clothing he'd come here for in the first place was lying there on the ground, and yet he wasn't so sure that taking it with him was a good idea right now. Muttering to himself about how weird today was already, he let himself out of the apartment without another word to Nate.

Almost immediately, Marissa appeared on the spiral staircase with Sophie at her heels.

"No, no luggage," Nate's niece was explaining as she reached the bottom of the steps. "I left in kind of a hurry..."

"Why?" her uncle asked as he came from the kitchen area with a mug of coffee in his hand. "I haven't seen you in years Marissa and suddenly, here you are."

"Can't a girl just want to come visit with her favourite uncle?" she shrugged, her expression obviously guilty, Sophie noticed, as she looked between the two of them.

Nate looked thoughtful a moment before he gestured for Marissa to sit down on the couch and he took an armchair. The grifter hovered a moment then spoke.

"Perhaps I should go..." she considered, "or I could stay," she changed her mind fast when neither person present seemed thrilled at the idea of being left alone with the other yet.

Sophie perched herself on the edge of the opposite armchair and waited to see what might happen here. Marissa's arrival certainly seemed sudden and Nate was likely as not to be mad as hell about finding the girl underneath his hitter. Eliot had gotten into enough trouble with his boss and friend for making eyes at Cora McRory, or so Sophie had been told, and she was only _kind of like_ a niece to Nate, not blood related at all.

"First of all, Marissa," her uncle said as he put his coffee mug down on the table and looked over at her, dressed now in spare sweatpants and a shirt he knew Sophie kept here for emergencies, "for what it's worth, I am pleased to see you. Of course, I would've been happier if I hadn't found you underneath a friend of mine when I walked in," he said, and the young woman before him at least had the good grace to blush at that. "Second of all, it's easy to be a favourite uncle when you're the _only_ uncle a person has," he pointed out.

Marissa blew her hair out of her face and trained her eyes on her feet.

"What do you want me to say?" she shrugged, eventually meeting his eyes. "It's been such a weird couple of days," she told him awkwardly, "and y'know I've changed a lot these past few years."

"How many years has it been?" asked Sophie curiously.

Honestly, she wasn't sure butting in was the best thing to do but curiosity was getting the best of her here. Nate had never mentioned a niece, or any family of any kind really. She vaguely recalled a reference to his sister once or twice, but he never had elaborated at all. Marissa was a mystery and her being here seemed to be equally as puzzling to Nate right now.

"Almost four," the mastermind said, reaching for his coffee mug and finishing off the rest of the caffienated beverage in one go.

"Sam's funeral," Marissa said flatly. "I still miss the little guy," she smiled sadly then, feeling worse when Nate practically leapt from his seat and headed back to the kitchen, mug in hand.

Sophie watched him as he reached the coffee machine, re-filled the mug but never drank, just leaned over the counter breathing too hard. He wanted a real drink, she knew it, and she sympathised, but she could not condone any action on his want to return to his alcoholic state.

"Um, so why the sudden visit?" she asked Marissa, hoping the change of subject would help some. "I'm surprised you even knew where to find Nate if you haven't seen him in so long."

"Oh, I have Aunt Maggie to thank for that," she explained with a smile. "We talk pretty regularly, she let slip she'd seen Uncle Nate and how you guys saved her in the Ukraine. That was pretty sweet," she grinned then, looking from Sophie to Nate who was now facing her, his mouth open wide. "What? You thought I believed that asshole Sterling got her off the hook all alone?"

"Well, no," he said, not willing to say too much since Marissa was not supposed to know what he really did for a living these days. "Y'know, you keep on ducking the question about why you're actually here, Marissa" he noted, pinching the bridge of his nose as he felt a headache coming on.

The young woman shifted uncomfortably on the couch and Sophie noticed it even more than Nate did. She looked awkward, perhaps guilty somehow. It would be obvious to anyone that whatever needed to be said was hard for her to admit, and with the grifter being so good at reading people anyway, this was child's play. Just when she was about to either offer to leave again if it would make a confession easier, or prompt the younger woman with suggestions as to what might be wrong, Marissa finally spoke up.

"Well, somebody didn't RSVP to their wedding invitation," she said snippily as she turned a glare on her uncle. "Turns out that's 'cause I sent it to LA, which was the last address I had for you, and hey, you don't live there anymore," she said smartly, arms folded across her chest as she won this round of the battle.

Sophie couldn't help but smile. It was almost like watching father and daughter fight it out and that was weirdly nice. Nate had a kind of family with the team but he had left his real family behind too long ago when Sam died. This visit from Marissa really might do him some good, she considered, if they actually stopped fighting and got along like it seemed they used to do.

"You're getting married?" Nate looked surprised at that, though he soon realised perhaps that was the wrong reaction given there was no reason at all why a nice young man wouldn't want to marry his darling niece really.

"Yeah, well," Marissa's face fell as she was forced to answer the question put to her, "jury's still out right now."

Sophie looked from niece to uncle and shook her head. Something was very badly wrong here. Young women did not show up on the doorstep of a relation they hadn't seen in years, with no luggage and no plans, not unless they were in trouble somehow. Apparently there was a man involved somewhere, which didn't really come as a surprise to the grifter. Though she knew it sounded sexist in the extreme, in her own head she had guessed this whole visit might very well have been borne from a man's betrayal or similar.

"It's a really, really long story," said Marissa, putting her face in her hands and looking very tired for so young a person, "and I wanna tell you about it, Uncle Nate, I do," she told him honestly, "but could we maybe do the whole explanation thing in the morning?" she asked him.

"I don't know, Marissa..." he shook his head, clearly about to argue, but she wouldn't hear it.

"It's not like I'm playing avoidance tactics," she promised him. "I just... I had this whole mix up at the airport, then the bus driver was a real ass, and your lock was a bitch to pick through, then..."

"His lock?" Sophie chimed in then, just seconds before Nate managed to get the words out, presumably because he was even more shocked than the grifter right now.

"You pick locks now?" he asked a moment later.

Marissa winced as if she only just realised what she said but immediately regretted it.

"Oh, yeah," she said, clearly wishing she hadn't brought that up just now. "Well, there's a story there too, but like I said, I am _really_ tired after my long day so..." she stood up and turned pleading eyes on her favourite uncle.

Nate broke as he always did at the sight of her wide eyes and quivering lip. Since she was a little girl she had been able to wrap him around her little finger this way, and things were no different more than twenty years later.

"Fine," he relented at last. "We'll discuss it in the morning. You go get some sleep," he told her, gesturing towards the spare room. "Um, Sophie can probably help you out with anything you need, if that's okay with you, Soph?"

"Of course," the grifter smiled easily as she too got to her feet, encouraging Marissa to follow her.

The younger woman took two steps forward before turning back and rushing at Nate, hugging him tight. He looked startled a moment before a smile crept across his lips and he put his arms around her too, hugging her back.

"Thanks, Uncle Nate," she said softly. "I've really missed you since you went away."

"I missed you too, Missy," he told her, the familiar little nickname she hadn't heard in years making her giggle as he kissed the top of her head.

They released each other then and she headed off to the room she would call her own for as long as she stayed here, with Sophie to offer clothes, toiletries, and anything else Marissa might need.

Nate watched them go and let out a long breath he hardly knew he'd been holding. He couldn't believe everything that had happened in the last hour or so. The very last thing he expected when he walked into his apartment this evening was to find his beloved niece, who he hadn't seen for four years, underneath his hitter of all people. Thinking of it now made him feel angry and a little nauseous if he were honest. Of course, he was fully aware that Marissa was a grown woman and could do whatever or whoever she chose, but that didn't make him any more comfortable with her getting up close and personal with Eliot, or any other guy, whilst she was staying here. Knowing she was engaged to be married, and soon by the sounds of things, only made it worse.

Somehow, Nate couldn't imagine sleep was going to come to easily tonight, and tomorrow was going to be an even longer day than this one had seemed.

_To Be Continued..._


	3. Chapter 3

_**(For disclaimer, etc. - see chapter 1)**_

Chapter 3

"Good morning!" Marissa smiled widely from her place on the other side of the kitchen counter.

Nate probably looked as bemused as he felt, padding down the spiral staircase in his PJs and robe. He remembered his niece had stayed over, of course, because despite really wanting to he hadn't had a drink last night. Still, he hadn't quite expected to come downstairs this morning at such an hour and find Marissa already dressed and in the kitchen, cooking up ham and eggs.

"Missy, it's six a.m.," he told her, as if she didn't know, putting a hand over his face and back through his hair that rarely if ever behaved.

"Uh-huh," replied Marissa non-commitally as she buzzed around the kitchen, pouring her uncle a coffee and passing it to him as he came to sit by the counter where she was so busy.

Nate nodded his thanks for the drink and took a long sip, as he watched his niece a while. Something was wrong, he had guessed that when she showed up at his apartment so suddenly after four years, telling him there was a long and complicated story that had led to this point. The fact was he could tell just from watching her now that things were not right, perhaps more not right than he had even bargained for. Sure, Marissa said she had changed these past few years, but up so early and so very quiet, these two things were so drastically out of character for her, he couldn't think for a moment they were anything but nervous reactions to whatever problem she was having.

"Marissa..." he tried to get her attention, though she barely looked at him as she served up two plates of breakfast and then turned away to put the skillet and such into the sink.

"So, your friend Sophie seems nice," she said then, clearly making a point of choosing a subject not about herself before her Uncle Nate had a chance to start in on her again about why she was here. "I say _friend_, she kind of seemed like more than that..."

"She is just a friend," said Nate on automatic as he so often had before. "At the moment, she is... we're not... She's just a friend," he repeated when he realised he didn't really have a better way to describe Sophie right now and it was far too early in the morning to try. "Anyway, I don't think it's the relationships in _my_ life we need to discuss, do you?" he said then as Marissa ran out of other things to do and other directions to look in.

Slowly turning around, she met her uncle's gaze and sighed.

"Fine," she huffed as she came and dropped down onto the stool beside him, the pair of them picking up their cutlery to eat, though Marissa in particular was now underwhelmed at the prospect of breakfast, "but I warned you, with me and Bryan, it's a loooong story."

"For you, I have all the time in the world," Nate promised her, popping a forkful of eggs into his mouth and complimenting her on a job well done in that at least.

Marissa pushed her food around the plate some and wondered where best to start.

"Well, we've been together three years now," she began eventually, deciding the beginning was usually a good place when telling a story. "At first it was all, y'know, perfect romantic dating stuff, and me being me, I thought I was in love... _again_."

"I do remember the tendency to fall fast and hard for any guy that smiled your way," said Nate with a nod and a smile he couldn't help at all. "I think it started when you swore that the Prince in that Disney movie actually looked at you when he smiled, rather than at the Princess."

Marissa chuckled at that because she recalled the event just as clearly and knew it was probably true, despite the fact that the incident in question had occurred when she was only six years old. It was odd to think that Uncle Nate would remember too, but then when she was a kid he had always been around and made such a fuss over her. Even when she was older, when he was married with a child of his own, Marissa always knew she mattered, never felt pushed out by Sam but saw him more as a brother than a cousin. She was as heart broken as anyone when he got sick and consequently died, and thinking of it now brought a lump to her throat that was hard to swallow.

"Anyway," she said after a moment, shaking her head free of the pieces of the past that weren't relevant right now, "I was in love and it was good, for a really long time it was good," she recalled as she continued to push her eggs around on her plate, not eating a single bite or apparently able to meet her uncle's eyes. "It was a few months ago that things changed," she admitted then. "It was weird, we started arguing over dumb stuff... I actually blamed myself for a lot of it, I thought I was the one causing it, but then Bryan asks me to marry him and I think, well, maybe he realised he was being an ass and this was the sign he was going to change, that things were going to be good again, y'know?"

"But things didn't change?" Nate prompted when she went quiet, her fork clanging against the plate as she let it drop too suddenly.

"Oh, things changed alright," she laughed without humour, pushing her breakfast away because there was no way she was ever going to eat it, not whilst she was talking about this. "They changed for the worse. I mean, the arguments got bigger, more important, y'know? It wasn't, 'who left the cap off the toothpaste?' or 'why is there never any beer in the fridge?', not anymore. This was the big stuff."

"What kind of big stuff?" her uncle asked curiously, almost afraid of what he was going to hear right now.

This was Marissa, his little niece, Missy, and he feared knowing of bad things that might have happened in her life. She was a big girl now, a woman, and she could look after herself he was sure, but the over-riding need to protect your family never completely went away, especially those you'd known since they were little kids.

"Bryan got paranoid," she said, turning sad eyes on Nate. "I just, I couldn't talk to a guy, hell, I could barely _look_ at a guy without him accusing me of cheating or wanting to cheat or whatever," she waved her arm in some random gesture as tears filled her eyes. "It just got more and more crazy with the accusations and I couldn't handle it."

"Did he...?" began Nate, feeling less able to ask the question when Marissa looked his way then. "Um... Did Bryan have any real basis for his concerns?" he asked, clearing his throat twice before he could get the question out, and immediately regretting the whole thing as Marrisa's eyes grew so wide they threatened to roll clean out of her head.

"Uncle Nate!" she squeaked, apparently mortified as she leapt up from her stool and moved to all but throw her plate into the sink, keeping her back to the man who had just accused her.

"I'm sorry, Missy," he immediately apologised. "Honestly, I am, and I wouldn't have asked that except... well, catching you, shall we say, _in flagrante_ with Eliot, what was I supposed to think?"

There was a moment of silence before he heard an almost painful laugh escape his niece's lips. She had her back to him still but her shoulders shook with the barely-concealed, almost maniacal laugh.

"Oh, I walked right into that, didn't I?" she sighed as she turned around then, wiping away tears that may have easily been borne of sadness or laughter, Nate really couldn't be sure right now. "No, Uncle Nate, I never cheated on my fiancé. I never even thought about it, at least, not until yesterday," she blushed a little then, ducking her face behind her hair. "Let's just say I was in a weird place when I stumbled upon your muscle, and the guy sure lives up to the title..."

"Yes, thank you," Nate waved a hand to make her stop, the other going to his face as he felt a headache coming on. "I really don't need to hear that from you, about him," he pointed out, as Marissa whispered an apology.

"Anyway, back to Bryan," she continued, knowing it was the safer topic right now and the main reason she was here anyway. "I was pretty sure he was lashing out at me about affairs because he had a guilty conscience."

"It's a classic," Nate shrugged his agreement. "Accuse others of your own crime to throw them off the scent, it's Psych 101"

"Exactly," nodded Marissa as she paced the kitchen floor. "So, I started digging around, checking his cell, his appointment book, the usual stuff, but I didn't find an affair, I found something worse," she admitted, meeting Nate's gaze, his expression full of confusion and interest both. "I think Bryan is involved in some kind of scam at work," she explained to her uncle. "It has to be pretty big, and I guess it could be dangerous. All I knew for sure was that he was keeping something from me, something huge, and I couldn't deal," she admitted.

Nate considered what she was saying, unsure whether Marissa was going to tell him anymore or if he was expected to ask. Curiosity getting the better of him, he prompted her to go on with the first question that came to mind;

"Did you ask him about it?"

His niece shifted awkwardly, then replied.

"I didn't know how," she admitted. "The way he's been acting lately..." she shook her head, giving no more away as she shifted from one sentence to the other, not letting Nate wonder too long on this guy's behaviour towards her. "Well, I got to talking with Aunt Maggie about it," she went on as she returned to her seat on the stool beside her uncle. "Then we were talking about you," she smiled. "I said I needed to get away, and she knew where you were so... so it just made sense to hop on a plane," she shrugged, looking up at him from behind her hair. "I knew you'd help me if you could," she said, and in that moment she was so much the child Nate had watched grow up, inspite of the fact she was now closer to thirty than thirteen, and fully adult.

"Of course I can try to help you, Missy," he told her, putting his hand over hers on the counter top and squeezing comfortingly, "but, well, I can offer sympathy, yeah, but marriage guidance?" he shook his head, knowing he was absolutely no use where that kind of thing was concerned.

He was a little confused to see Marissa smile.

"No, Uncle Nate, I don't need pre-marriage help," she told him. "I need _real_ help," she explained. "I need you to help me find out how deep Bryan is into this, whatever this whole thing really is in the first place," she went on. "I need to catch the crook, and that's what you do," she told him, repeating words he himself had said often enough, words that had become a go to phrase for the members of the Leverage team.

'It's what we do'. They all said it about all their roles, but mostly about their main goal. They helped people, caught the bad guy red-handed, saved the day, got the pay out, won the case. Nameless, faceless people that Nate rarely remembered when the mission was over had been saved in all kinds of ways because of him and his team. Now here was his niece, one of the few family members he had left that still cared. She needed his help and he had to give it, even if he was astounded that she knew so much about his cause and still loved him as much as ever.

"Maggie told you everything?" he checked, sure by now that it must be true.

"Pretty much," Marissa nodded her head, "a lot about the team, mostly about Eliot," she smirked a little then, mindful of spilling to her uncle just exactly how Maggie thought of the hitter in case of hurting him or causing jealousy. "Before long I started to realise these were the people from those stories you and Aunt Maggie used to tell me, and then she admitted it."

Nate felt strange as he realised she was right. As a teen, Marissa would often come stay over with him and Maggie if her parents were going out for the evening or away for the weekend. They would allow her to stay up a little later than she should sometimes, and she would always want to hear stories about their work, chasing criminals. It was only now as he thought back on those times that Nate realised he had mentioned each of his current team - Hardison, Eliot, Parker, and Sophie - in those stories he told, though he had never once spoken their names.

"You know I always loved those tales about the retrieval specialist you never quite caught," she giggled as if it were those days again and she were that young. "I mean, I was a teenager, he was a serious bad boy..."

"Eliot is more than a rebellious kid, Missy," her uncle told her sternly, perhaps treating her a little too much like the teenager she used to be in that moment. "He's a very dangerous man, and you don't just..."

"Well, I _did_ just," she reminded him, defiant for all of five seconds before she remembered who she was talking to and what she was talking about, "or I might've, if you and your 'friend' Sophie hadn't shown up," she said pointedly.

Nate bristled at the way she used the word friend to mean anything but. Of course, he couldn't really argue with her, because honestly, when it came to him and his grifter, even Nate himself was sure how to describe their relationship anymore.

Marissa sighed when she realised their bickering wasn't helping any. Besides, she could use her uncle not thinking she was some kind of ho.

"What can I say?" she sighed and shrugged at the same time. "I'm just a woman, and he is a very hot guy," she explained, without looking at Nate once. "After the day I'd had, and the way Bryan has been acting lately... I'll admit, it wasn't my proudest moment, but we all give into weakness now and then, right?"

At the last she glanced her uncle's way and met his eyes. They both knew what she was getting at. She was a smart girl, not blind or stupid. When Sam died, Nate tried to drown his pain in a bottle and Marissa knew it now as she had then. He knew what it was to be overcome, to want to lose yourself in something mindless and stupid, to wish the world away a while. It was impossible for him to argue with her wanting to make use of sex in the same way he made use of alcohol, even if he did feel sick at the idea of his baby niece getting physical with anyone.

"Marissa," he said at length. "Er, are you sure you want me to investigate Bryan?" he checked, the subject change perhaps not quite as welcome as it might've been given the circumstances.

"Yes, totally sure," she said anyway with a definite nod of her head. "I have to know the truth, Uncle Nate, for his sake as well as mine," she told him.

"Fine," he agreed, getting to his feet, "then, it's time to get dressed, and call the team."

To Be Continued...


	4. Chapter 4

_**(For disclaimer, etc. - see chapter 1)**_

Chapter 4

When Sophie arrived at Nate's place, Marissa had a knowing smile on her face that only served to make her uncle mad. He didn't say anything, but she knew he didn't like the way she had suggested the grifter was much more to him than a team-mate and a friend. What he didn't seem to realise was that his protesting just made it all the more clear to his niece that something was most definitely going on, or would be going on before long.

The next to arrive was Hardison, who really didn't look at all how Marissa had pictured in her head. That much was clear from the way she stared at him as if he were a three-headed alien!

"I'm sorry," she apologised when she noted she had yet to let go of his hand from the shake. "You're just not exactly what I expected," she admitted with a chuckle at herself for being so dumb. "I guess I watch too many movies, I always assume hackers are all geeky with the glasses and the retainer and all," she shook her head.

"That's cool," Hardison smiled anyway. "So long as I an improvement and not a disappointment," he joked, until a warning look from Nate made it clear that flirting with his niece was strictly prohibited.

Of course, the hacker didn't know that Eliot had made a much bigger mistake than him when it came to Marissa, and it was probably better that way. Keeping quiet about the comprising position the hitter and his niece were found in made sense to Nate, to save her blushes... and to stop him from having to think about it!

"Who's the girl?" said a voice behind the half-assembled crew, though only Marissa jumped with surprise.

"I'm gonna go ahead and guess that this is Parker," she said a second later, her hand still over her chest from the shock of someone appearing without warning.

Nate made introductions between the two women, noting how skittish his thief was, in spite of the fact Marissa was family. She had been similarly wary of Maggie to be fair, and of all people that came into their little group. It was just her way and Nate wasn't going to worry about it too much.

By the time Eliot arrived, the team were already sat down together talking about why Marissa was here and the problem they were going to help her with. There was a brief and awkward moment as the hitter met her eyes and took his seat without any formal introduction made. That caught Hardison's attention, though Parker seemed not to notice at all, as Eliot sat himself down beside the thief.

"Okay, so Marissa suspects that her husband-to-be is involved in some fraudulent dealings," Nate explained from his spot at the end of the teams' collective desk, his niece next along between himself and Sophie. "We don't know what he's doing or how deep he is into this, so priority one is figuring that out."

"Just give me a name, boss, and step one is on a roll," said Hardison as he fired up his laptop on the single desk near the screens, and prepared to search.

"Bryan Justin Winters," Marissa told him. "Er, Bryan with a y," she clarified as an afterthought.

"Ooh," the little noise of concern or possible pain emitted from Parker, making everybody turn to look her way.

"What's wrong with you?" asked Eliot, a usual phrase where she was concerned, but at least this time he was being specific.

"Bryan with a y," she said, as if it were the most obvious thing in the world. "Usually something bad about that."

Though the hitter made his patented 'you're crazy' face at that remark, Sophie looked more intrigued.

"Y'know, you might be right," she admitted. "I never met a dodgy Brian with an I, but there have been a couple with Ys..." she shuddered. "Oh, that's weird and creepy."

"And that's enough of that," Nate cut in before they got really off-topic. "Hardison, what else do you need?" he asked the hacker.

"Whatever you got to narrow this down?" he said with a look, as far too many men named Bryan Winters spooled past him on the screen.

All eyes then went to Marissa as she realised she was the only one with the information that was required.

"Er, right," she shook herself out of a mini-daze. "He's thirty-one, white, American," she shrugged, not really sure where to start. "He works for Green Door Advertising, just outside LA..."

"That'll work," Hardison nodded and smiled as his fingers flew across the keyboard and he narrowed down his search a piece at a time.

"So, what makes you think this cat is bad news?" asked Eliot out of curiosity, after all, you didn't just go accusing your fiance of hinky business deals for no apparent reason.

"I found these texts on his cell," Marissa explained, though she was exactly looking at Eliot at all as she did so. "He would get them at weird times of the day, never in business type hours, but he always said they were from his contacts," she said with a look that proved she was confused by it all. "There were emails too, at our home, which I never understood because he has his email account at work so why would his clients and business associates use the home address unless something weird is going on?"

A look went around the team that Nate's niece failed to notice, and that was probably a good thing right now. Yes, there was every chance Bryan was a crooked businessman, after all, there were plenty around, but it was equally likely it was something else he was hiding.

"Do you have copies of the emails or the texts?" asked Sophie, thinking that might help them make a decision one way or another on what was going on here.

"No, I'm sorry," she shook her head in response, feeling so stupid. "I should've thought..." she realised, close to tears that made everybody feel bad.

"It's okay, Missy," her Uncle Nate assured her, putting a comforting arm around her shoulders.

"Yeah," Parker piped up. "I mean, you can't help that you don't even know the basics," she shrugged.

"Parker!" immediately Eliot snapped at her from his place beside her, but when she looked at him she was all wide-eyed innocence.

"What?" she asked, apparently without a clue as to what she said that was so bad, but then he ought to have known she wouldn't get it.

He was shaking his head at her but had neither the energy or the time to explain, as Marissa spoke up again.

"Oh, I do have one thing..." she said suddenly getting up and going for her purse, the one piece of 'luggage' she had brought with her on her very unplanned and last minute trip. "This is the last statement for my bank account," she explained as she returned with the piece of paper in her hand and passed it to Nate. "I called the bank because of all this movement that didn't make sense to me. They said it was all legitimate, that they were the amounts that I'd transferred to my other account, but the only other one I have is a joint one me and Bryan set up a while back," she shook her head as her uncle and his grifter friend poured over the numbers struck through with a bright yellow marker. "I didn't move this much into it, I know I didn't."

"Is there any way he could move it without your knowledge?" asked Nate, pretty sure that wasn't going to be possible but deciding he should ask just in case.

"Not that I know of," shrugged Marissa. "and I didn't get a chance to ask him. He's away on business right now and... well, when I got this and realised he was stealing from me, it was like the final straw," she admitted. "A few hours later, I was on a plane and... here I am." she said with a less than genuine smile.

"It's okay, sweetie," Sophie assured the fragile-looking young woman, putting a hand to her arm. "We'll help you figure this out, we really will," she promised her.

Still, the moment Marissa wasn't looking, the grifter was sharing a look with Nate that suggested she wasn't entirely convinced this Bryan's lies were all about business. Of course, that was probably a conversation best had when she wasn't present for now.

"Okay," said the mastermind, after an imperceptible shake of his head warned Sophie, and more so the others, not to say what he was sure was on their minds, at least not now. "Um, Hardison, you see what you can get on this guy, the rest of you head home and pack please, because I have a feeling we might be going out of town on this one."

As Eliot and Parker went for the door, and Hardison got comfortable with his laptop, Sophie hung back a moment, hoping for an oppurtunity to speak to Nate alone. It seemed either Marissa realised that or just had plans of her own, opposite to those that her uncle was having about them catching up on more pleasant things than Bryan's apparent betrayal.

"Um, actually, Uncle Nate, could you give me a few minutes?" she asked him, eyes flitting to the door and back. "I think I kinda owe your hitter an explanation... and an apology," she admitted, shifting awkwardly and once again unable to meet his eyes.

Though he wanted to protest, one look from Sophie told him to just let the girl go, and for more than one reason.

"Fine," he relented, gesturing for her to go if she must, "but don't be too long, he has packing to do," he called after her as she disappeared.

"Nate," his attention was taken from the retreating form of his niece as Sophie filled his vision and whispered to him. "It's not fair to let her think this Bryan is a con man," she shook her head. "You know it's probably just an affair, don't you?"

"Well, it... it could be." Nate considered, though he could see from the look in the grifter's eyes she wasn't buying. "A little more research before we start saying anything," he insisted. "We have no evidence either way right now." he reminded her, before saying she really should go pack her things, just in case they were proven wrong and had to leave fast.

Sophie went because there was nothing else to do right now, but she wasn't at all convinced.

* * *

><p>"Hey, Eliot?" Marissa called behind him, catching up to him half way through the bar.<p>

He turned back with a look of curiousity and a hint of awkwardness that she fully understood after how they had been caught the day before. She could almost blush herself now as she looked at him, her mind replaying the scene that she was sure would forever be burnt on her memory, but then that was her very reason for chasing after him right now.

"Does Nate want me back upstairs?" he asked, really hoping that was all it was in a lot of ways.

"No, I just..." she shifted awkwardly. "Too bad it's too early for a drink," she laughed nervously looking over the bar. "Can I buy you a coffee instead?" she checked.

Eliot would have liked to say no, just get the hell out of here and go do his job, but he couldn't. Marissa was going through some stuff right now, all this crap with her fiancé that seemed to be either a crooked businessman or a cheating asshole, and if she got anymore awkward about talking to him right now he thought she was going to disappear through the floor just by pure force of will alone.

"Coffee's fine," he nodded his agreement, taking up a stool and gesturing for her to join him, as two drinks were duly ordered.

There was a further moment of awkward silence before Marissa finally explained her reasons for wanting to talk.

"I just wanted to say that I'm sorry, about before," she said, studying her own fingers nails on the bar top too closely, just because meeting his eyes was way too hard right now.

"Sorry you started it or sorry we didn't get to finish," Eliot asked her straight out, shocking Marissa so much her eyes shot up to meet his on automatic.

The smirk on his lips was as sexy as it was annoying and she wanted to kiss him again as much as she wanted to slap his face right now. Feeling mixed up and confused was becoming normal for her lately and she didn't much care for it.

"Oh, please don't make me answer that," she urged him, feeling foolish. "I'm really not usually like that, at all," she shook her head, staring into her coffee that had arrived just moments before. "I just had this really bad day, after a whole series of bad days, and Bryan had made me so mad. Then I see you, all insanely hot as you are," she admitted, flattering Eliot to know end without even thinking about it. "I messed up and I made things so awkward, Eliot." she admitted sadly, daring to glance his way then. "I am sorry."

When he met her eyes, Eliot saw genuine guilt for any damage she might have caused. Marissa wasn't automatically a good person just because she was related to a decent man. Still, to a certain degree, the hitter was willing to trust Nate's niece by proxy, and he did believe she never meant any harm. Maybe admitting she was using him to get back at her would-be husband wasn't the brightest thing, but it was honest. There weren't a lot of people these days you could say that about, especially not the team when it came to their many cons. The fact she would admit her mistakes and apologise for them, to face him when she was embarrassed by her apparently out of character behaviour, it said a lot for her integrity, and he liked that.

"Don't worry about it," he told her, sipping his coffee. "I mean, you want me to forgive you for making Nate mad at me? Fine, you're forgiven, but he's not my Daddy like he tries to play sometimes, and I don't need his good opinion."

Marissa just nodded her head, glad to have the acceptance of her apology. She really hadn't meant to cause problems in her Uncle Nate's team and yet she ought to have known putting the moves on his hitter would do just that. She would plead temporary insanity if not for the fact she really had wanted Eliot in that moment, and a part of her still wasn't quite sorry she'd gone for it the way she had.

Of course, she had meant it when she said it was out of character for her to behave in such a way, and she knew that throwing herself at a guy like that wasn't right at all. The truth was, she'd still like to know Eliot better, one way or another, and a more sensible way had to be talking like this, trying to get along.

"So, you think we can be like the dreaded F word now?" she suggested coyly.

"Friends?" the word Eliot spoke felt foreign in his mouth. "I don't really have a lot of those," he told her honestly, not really sure why he was telling her anything about himself but then it hardly mattered given what she already did know.

"Right now, me either," she admitted, turning her coffee cup around and around in the saucer. "So, how about we change that? We can start over, with our clothes on, and be friends," she suggested with a smile, holding out her hand as if to shake his. "Hi, I'm Marissa Kennedy."

"Eliot Spencer," he responded, with a similarly amused grin at her plan. "Pleased to meet you, ma'am," he said, taking a hold of her hand and raising it to his lips to kiss her knuckles.

Marissa couldn't help but chuckle at that, the sound of her laughter echoing across the space to the doorway where Parker was stood. She had got half way down the street before she realised she had forgotten something and headed back to Nate's for it. She was about to take the route back through the bar when she stopped short of going in, spotting Eliot and Marissa sat there.

Eliot didn't smile much, and most of the time when he did somebody else's pain was involved. Right now, he was grinning like the Cheshire Cat at Nate's niece, laughing and joking, kissing her hand. It was all very friendly and cute, and yet Parker found she didn't like it at all. Her stomach started to tie itself into a knot somehow, and she had an overwhelming feeling to do _something_, but for the life of her she wasn't sure what that something was. All she knew for sure was that she didn't really like this Marissa person, and she hadn't really noticed it until she made Eliot smile like that.

_To Be Continued..._


	5. Chapter 5

_**(For disclaimer, etc. - see chapter 1)**_

Chapter 5

The team were all gathering at Nate's place for the second time, a plan presumably figured out to help Marissa catch her husband-to-be for his no good business dealings. Of course, it had occurred to all of them by now that there was every chance the only dodgy thing about Bryan was an affair he was having, but it was not their place to say so, at least not yet.

Sophie had called a few hours ago with an offer to take Marissa shopping for a few clothes, just in case she would be staying a while, and Nate agreed that it wasn't the worst idea he ever heard. He tried to make conversation with Hardison after that, but when the hacker pointed out, not for the first time, that his work was best done alone, the mastermind had headed upstairs and left him be for the most part.

With all the information gathered that he could find, Hardison told Nate the situation and the team were duly called back to base. It was getting late by now, but there was no way they could leave this til morning, not when Marissa was headed back here and would want to know the score.

Eliot was first to arrive and found it strange that Hardison was seemingly alone in the apartment, setting up the laptop with the vid-screen.

"Where is everybody?" he asked, thinking they should be there by now, especially Nate and Marissa who were living there.

"Parker ain't made it over yet, and Sophie is still spending her way through main street on Marissa's behalf," he explained, grinning too much when he added, "'Course, I don't think she oughta need too many clothes, y'know what I'm sayin'?" he winked, clearly having been checking the girl out.

"You say that stuff in front of Nate, man, and he'll kill ya," Eliot warned him too seriously. "Actually, I'm pretty sure if you say that stuff to Marissa _she'll_ kill ya," he smirked then. "You're not exactly her type," he said smartly as he went to the fridge to find a beer.

"How would you even know that?" the hacker wanted to know, thinking about what had happened earlier today. "And, hey, what did she have to apologise to you for?" he asked, having been wondering about it on-and-off since he heard Marissa say so.

Eliot's beer bottle stilled at his lips as he thought about whether or not this was a good topic of conversation to get into right now. Nate had made it pretty clear he was not impressed by a member of his team getting close to his niece in any way at all, so in theory he was doing everyone a favour by warning Hardison off. Besides, if he got to tell a little story of how a woman threw herself at him, so much the better for his male ego.

"Okay," he said, his eyes flitting to the stairs to make sure Nate wasn't going to appear from anywhere, leaning in closer to Hardison as he explained. "First night she was here, I came over to pick up my jacket, I found Marissa wearing it... and not a whole lot else," he said with a look that had the hacker's eyes going overly wide.

"Did you...?" he said, with a random hand gesture that went unneeded since it was already pretty obvious what he meant anyway.

"Nate walked in," he said with a look, "when we were... getting to know each other," he admitted, taking a drag of his beer.

"Oooh, man, that gotta be embarrassin'!" Hardison bit his lip so as not to laugh at the hitter's misfortune.

"What's embarrassing?" asked Nate as he appeared from upstairs.

The look on Eliot's face coupled with the gesture of his hand making a cutting motion across his throat had Hardison stammering for a subject change.

"Er, y'know... er, Eliot got mistaken for a girl 'cause of his hair," he rattled out, immediately getting up and practically running across the room the very next second.

Eliot was glaring and that was never good. If not for the fact he had just saved his ass from Nate's wrath, the hacker was still pretty sure he was going to get his own butt kicked for what he said. Sometimes you just couldn't win.

Thankfully, before anything more could be said or done, the girls all arrived and the meeting was called to some kind of order.

"Hardison, what've we got?" asked Nate as everyone took a seat and turned their eyes towards the vid-screen.

"Far as I can tell, your man Bryan is a legitimate man of business," explained the hacker, bringing up a picture of Marissa's fiancé and various pages of financials and such that he'd been searching through. "Of course, that doesn't mean he is, just means I haven't found the evidence yet."

"So, why are we having a meeting?" asked Eliot with a frown. "I mean, if you don't have anything on this cat yet, what's the point?"

"The point is, just 'cause I don't know what he's doin' wrong doesn't mean he ain't doin' it," Hardison pointed out, pressing the button on his clicker. "See this here?" he gestured to a page that appeared on the screen and highlighted numbers that zoomed into sharp focus. "As of right now, I cannot see where these amounts of cash are coming from or going to," he explained.

"Large amounts of cash moving in and out of his account is certainly suspicious." nodded Sophie, "but there could still be a logical explanation for it," she considered.

"No," Marissa disagreed with that, shaking her head to prove the point. "I live with this guy, I know enough about him to know he should not be getting those kind of payments from anywhere," she insisted. "This isn't right, Uncle Nate, I know it."

The mastermind opened his mouth to answer her but never got the chance as Parker chimed in.

"Maybe you just don't know him as well as you think," she shrugged. "You ever think of that?"

"That's not helping, Parker," Eliot told her crossly, his arms folded over his chest as they often were, especially when he was annoyed.

"What?" the thief asked in all innocence, though there was something behind her eyes that suggested to him she knew just exactly what she'd said.

"Marissa," Nate cut in before a war began amongst any of the younger members of his team. "There could still be a logical explanation for this, but we will keep looking until we find either that or, y'know, something less legal than that," he assured her, patting her hand.

"Absolutely," agreed Hardison, "but this ain't necessarily the easiest way to figure out what's going down with the dude's activities," he smiled suddenly. "Y'know that little business trip he on?" he grinned, clicking a button.

"He's here!" Sophie gasped as the vid-screen flipped and showed a picture of a large hotel on the outskirts of town. "His big business conference is right here in Boston."

"Weird coincidence," Parker muttered, choosing to ignore the looks she got from both grifter and hitter.

"All of advertisings best and brightest are gathering here at the Hyperion Hotel to discuss methods, make new contacts, and have a good old time," Hardison confirmed. "It's like Comic-Con for advertising freaks."

"Okay," Nate nodded. "Then it should be pretty simple to make contact here, pose as a big-wig advertiser, see if we can't fake a deal with Bryan."

"But we don't know what kind of deal we're faking," pointed out Sophie as she leant back in her seat trying to puzzle this out in her own mind. "Plus, is there any chance he's going to recognise his fiancé's favourite uncle?"

All eyes went to Marissa for the answer to that one and she looked thoughtful before she answered.

"There's a possibility he would know you, I guess," she told Nate with a frown. "I have photo albums and he has seen them. Is that going to be a problem?" she checked worriedly.

"No, not necessarily," the mastermind assured her. "After all, Sophie is the real talent when it comes to the grift, she can be our fellow advertising executive, and Hardison here can be the client that she's going to screw over."

"Screw over, how?" asked Eliot curiously. "And why?"

Nate didn't answer the question, which wasn't wholly surprising, as he moved away and wandered in front of the vid-screen a while. When he did speak it wasn't to Eliot at all.

"Sophie, what's the simplest scam in advertising?" he asked her, at which she shrugged her shoulders.

"Easy, selling space or time that doesn't exist," she explained, looking around the rest of the team as she went on. "You offer billboards in places where they'll never be erected, page spreads in publications that won't have half the print run you're promoting..."

"Exactly," the mastermind nodded once, then pointing up at the photograph of his niece's fiancé on the screen continued. "Now, if Bryan Winters is in, shall we say, _dodgy_ advertising, this is probably the scam he's pulling."

"So if Sophie goes in there and tells him she's doing the same thing but on the biggest possible scale..." said Hardison as he suddenly caught on, "then this guy is gonna want to get in on that."

"Which will mean revealing any partners he has or anything else we might use to, er, deal with him," finished Nate, glad to see a smile, however small, on Marissa's face when he was done.

He really didn't have anyone to be proud of him these days. Sure, the team thought he was smart, trusted his judgement and his plans most of the time, but it wasn't the same. Having someone from his family here, looking up to him the way his niece always had, it was a nice feeling for Nathan Ford, perhaps even better than the warm fuzzy feelings he could get out of a bottle.

"Okay," he snapped himself out of calm reverie the moment he realised he'd fallen in. "Tonight, we make this happen. According to the schedule the hotel is having a swanky party for all its advertising types at the conference. Eliot, Parker, I want you two to find which room at the hotel Bryan is staying in, see if we can't find anything there, maybe some paperwork, anything incriminating," he told them, and they nodded their agreement. "Sophie and Hardison will keep Bryan busy in the ballroom running game on him."

"What about me?" asked Marissa as stools scraped against the floor around her, this team apparently about to leave her all alone here whilst they prepared for their con that revolved around her own fiancé.

"No, Marissa, you're not involved in this," her uncle told her kindly. "See, this is the team - hitter, hacker, grifter, thief." he gestured to each one. "You, you're my niece." he reminded her, putting his hand over hers on the desk. "We're helping _you."_

"And that means I can't help you too?" she frowned some at that. "I mean, I know I'm not on your team, Uncle Nate, but I'm not stupid and I have skills of my own..." she told him, sitting up straighter in her seat, looking like a child that was proud to have learnt her name or something.

"Ah, yes, we never did talk about the lock picking incident," said Nate pointedly, as he took the empty stool next to her and gave his niece a withering look.

His words certainly caught the attention of the rest of the team, Parker most especially.

"She picks locks?" the little thief gasped, looking much less than impressed. "That's my job!" she said definitely.

"Oh, I'm totally amateur," Marissa insisted, suddenly wishing she had kept her mouth shut as five pairs of eyes stared at her, one pair partially angrily apparently. "I just... it's just one of those things I picked up," she shrugged, as if it were no big deal.

"You _picked up_ lock picking?" checked Sophie, finding it a little strange for any person to have done such a thing, not least a straight-laced girl like Nate's niece Marissa ought to be.

The brunette sighed heavily, really wishing she had never begun now. Explaining this wasn't necessarily going to make her look good, and in more than one way. Unfortunately, it seemed nobody was going anywhere until she explained herself. Given that she was holding up a con, and more specifically one to help her, Marissa decided to give in and tell the truth.

"I lose my keys so much, I must've called the locksmith six times in a month, and..." she stammered some before continuing, looking at no-one and focusing only on her hands where they laid on the counter, fingers fidgeting awkwardly, "and, uh, so he was cute and I may have turned on a little charm and got him to show me the basics," she admitted, glancing up through her hair to see what kind of reaction she got to that.

There were smiles, though neither Nate nor Eliot looked overly impressed. Marissa was sure the hitter was now wondering if she wasn't some kind of slut, throwing herself at guys all the time, but she hoped not.

"I like this girl," she heard Sophie say as the grifter walked away, and that was at least some comfort, especially when Parker glared as if to burn a hole through her.

"Um, so yeah, the point is I want to help with this," Marissa went on to say, even as Nate wandered into the kitchen in search of a stiff drink. "It's my problem after all."

"We don't know what Bryan is mixed up in, could be dangerous," Eliot advised her then. "An advertising scam doesn't sound that bad but there's no telling who he might be working with or for. This kind of thing can fund some pretty nasty stuff," he explained, apparently deciding she wasn't ready to hear just how nasty that stuff could get right now as he walked away,

"Yeah, leave it to the professionals," Parker smiled. "There's a good girl." she added, literally patting Marissa on the head before following Eliot out of the door.

Across the room from his now confused niece, Nate was talking to Sophie before she left, or rather the grifter was doing all the talking.

"Maybe Marissa could help," she suggested. "If she were to call Bryan, she could get his hotel room number, save on Hardison having to search for it or Eliot and Parker having to ask?" she tried, not giving Nate a chance to argue though he did open his mouth to do so. "She needs to feel like part of this Nate," she told him, looking over at Marissa hovering around, trying to be involved in whatever Hardison was doing on his computer now. "She's here with no friends, a possibly scummy fiancé, and... well, I think she just wants to fit in," she explained. "We all know what that's like."

Nate would have liked to have argued, but honestly, he knew Sophie was right, just like always. Before long he was conceding that Marissa could at least make that one phone call, if Sophie was willing to help her with it and they did it right now. Sometimes he was sure women, in their many guises, would be the death of him, long before the ill-effects of alcohol ever took hold.

_To Be Continued..._


	6. Chapter 6

_**(For disclaimer, etc. - see chapter 1)**_

Chapter 6

The team were in position and the con was on at the Hyperion Hotel. It had taken a little time for Hardison to rustle up identities for himself and Sophie. Meanwhile, Marissa had been shockingly convincing when calling her fiancé to get his room number out of him. Nate wasn't sure whether to be proud or worried that his niece could lie so well, playing the part of besotted wife-to-be, wanting to know everything about her man's latest exciting business trip. She made excuses for wanting to know so much, from prompts Sophie helped her with, citing the hotel as a place they might stay sometime, asking what floor he was on and she hoped he wasn't over-doing it running up so many stairs. Her caring attitude got him to 'sing like a canary' as she had said when she got off the phone. Uncle Nate had gently pointed out that they were thieves, not old-style cops, so she didn't need to talk that way.

Eliot and Parker had snuck in the hotel around back, dressed as staff, and gone straight up to room 106 in which Bryan was staying. The man himself was safely in the main hall, attending the next conference, with Sophie and Hardison watching him from a distance. He seemed to be attached to the buffet table and his cell phone right now, which worked for the grift since his attention ought to be easily diverted.

"Okay, Nate," said Sophie into the comms. "We're going in," she told him as she and Hardison began walking in the general direction of the buffet table, trying to look natural as they did so.

"It's quite simple, Mr Reynolds," she said to the hacker, both of them now in character. "Television is the way forward in advertising, the British are now watching almost as much as the Americans. A two minute ad in the right place, the whole country will be crying out for your product," she enthused, slightly more loudly than was necessary as they approached Bryan Winters.

"And you can provide this for me, Miss Windsor?" said 'Mr Reynolds' played with aplomb by Alec Hardison.

"Please, call me Carolyn," replied Sophie, batting her eyes, "and but of course! My corporation have been in business for almost as long as there has been television advertising," she explained, making sure Bryan heard every word loud and clear. "You can rely on us to make you the most well-known dog food manufacturer in the world, and for a fraction of the price some of those other companies will quote you."

They had Winters attention now, Sophie was certain of it. She could practically feel his eyes burning into her back and yet did not flinch at all as she shifted around to put her glass of wine on the table, the moment Hardison asked exactly what price he might be quoted. She reached for a napkin and turned to Bryan himself then, asking if he had a pen she might borrow. Immediately he was handing over his own writing implement, which 'Miss Windsor' graciously thanked him for.

"I think you'll find this quite acceptable, Mr Reynolds," she smiled at Hardison as she jotted down a figure in large enough print and at such an angle that there was no way Bryan hadn't seen it clear as day.

"Okay," said Nate in both their ears. "Good work, guys. Now hopefully just as soon as Hardison walks away we'll have Bryan hooked."

"I can't believe this," gasped Marissa from her place sat at the desk, watching her uncle pace the floor as he co-ordinated his latest job.

He quickly shushed her as Hardison could be heard making his exit from the scene and Bryan was immediately asking Sophie how she could possibly cut such a cheap deal as he just saw her do.

"Sophie, don't tell him it's a scam," Nate reminded her. "Just give him a hint, let him put it together for himself."

"You guys make this all seem so easy," said Marissa seriously. "I couldn't just lie like that."

"It's not lying, not exactly," Nate told her, mindful of Sophie taking his niece's words the wrong way when it came to her career as professional grifter and thief. "And Missy, don't forget while you can hear the entire team, they can also hear you," he advised, gesturing to his own ear as a reminder of the workings of her own comms device that Hardison had furnished her with before leaving.

She nodded silently then, almost forgetting that part of the equation. She was astounded by the technology, by the way Sophie and Hardison could act so well, becoming entirely different people in an instant, and how everyone was able to concentrate with a bunch of voices constantly in their head. It made her feel as if her own basic administrator's job was severely lacking in excitement and skill as well, but then if everybody was capable of the things this team could do, they wouldn't be half so special. Of course, this con might be a lot more fun to be a part of if her own fiancé wasn't the mark, but then that was why she was really here and a necessary evil.

"Er, Eliot? Parker? How're you guys doing at the room?" asked Nate, his eyes going to Marissa and away again just as soon as he said the hitter's name.

Marissa rolled her eyes, unable to believe her uncle's inability to let things go. Of course, at some point she would like to explain to Eliot that she wasn't the slut he probably thought she was right now, given she was engaged, throwing herself on him, and flirting with her locksmith til he taught her tricks. To think she once had a good reputation when it came to guys!

"Parker just tripped the lock," said Eliot through the earbuds then. "You guys know this is the honeymoon suite, right?" he checked, at which Marissa's jaw visibly dropped.

"That's not really the point right now," said Nate, shaking his head at his niece when she opened her mouth to speak, knowing she was about to lose it big style and also knowing it was a bad idea over the comms. "See what you can find in there. Let us know if anything suspicious comes up."

"Always do," confirmed Parker as they started their search.

"You okay, Missy?" asked her uncle as he walked over and put a hand to her shoulder.

"Sure, yeah," she forced a smile, looking much less chipper than she was trying to be. "Why wouldn't I be? Nothing's been proved yet, right?" she shrugged.

Nate opened his mouth to confirm that was true, only to hear a conversation in his head that said otherwise.

Sophie was still on the grift and had just insinuated her business was less than legitimate, causing Bryan to chuckle in her ear.

"You might just be my kind of woman, Miss Windsor," he told her, at which Marissa started. "To do business with, that is," her fiancé deftly amended without any particular encouragement.

Nate smiled as his niece visibly relaxed, especially when the conversation went on in a positive way in their ears then.

"Only business?" Sophie checked in such a tone as to melt any man, and yet Bryan seemed unmoved.

"Yes, indeed," he replied. "I used to operate on a similar system to yourself," he told her, pausing a moment, sipping his wine though the others could not see it of course. "These days I'm a little more on the straight and narrow."

"Really?" checked Sophie. "And why would that be? Don't tell me you got bored of getting rich?"

"What can I say," he sighed. "The love of a good woman changes a man, brings a different kind of wealth."

Marissa was grinning, actively giggling even at the sound of those words, a sound rarely heard over the Leverage team comms, but none the less pleasant.

"Aaw, isn't he the sweetest!" she cooed, apparently having forgotten this whole con was for her, to find out if her fiancé was the lying cheating scum she suspected he might be.

Eliot resisted the urge of say Bryan's words were such a bad line, though Parker made a snorting noise that proved she wasn't buying it. Unfortunately, the rest of the team realised that Marissa would have heard that sound and probably not appreciated it.

"What's up with you?" Eliot snapped, mindful of having a woman he liked upset by his thief-friend's craziness.

"Nothing," Parker shrugged, as she continued to rifle through the paperwork she had found in the nightstand. "Just if she's so in love with this sweet guy, why's she making goo-goo eyes at you?"

"That's enough, Parker," Nate snapped. "Can we concentrate on the job, please?"

"Oh my God!" Marissa gasped. "Does everybody know that me and Eliot made out?" she asked in shock, putting her face in her hands despite the fact nobody but her uncle could see her.

"Er, they do now," said Hardison as carefully as he could. "Earbuds, Marissa. Remember?"

"Damn!" she was heard to curse through everybody's head, though not all of them were listening.

Eliot didn't understand or appreciate the way Parker was looking at him right now. When he thought on it, it shouldn't matter much that Marissa just told the whole team what happened between them, since all but the little thief already knew, and yet the look in her eyes when she glared at him suggested it mattered a whole lot more than it should to Parker. Brushing that thought aside, Eliot turned away and spoke to Nate.

"Okay, well, there's nothing here," he told him, "and given what Bryan's been sayin' to Sophie…"

"Yeah, time to call it a day," the mastermind agreed, not least because of how mortified his niece was looking right now as he glanced at her. "Guys, all head back to base and…"

"Hang on a second," Parker interrupted, getting Eliot's attention more than anyone else's as he swung around to see what she had found. "Who's Annette Fuller?" she asked.

Nate looked to Marissa for her input but she just shook her head.

"I don't know," she admitted. "Why?" she pointed her question down the earbud mostly at Parker since it was the thief that had brought up the name that was completely foreign to her.

Still, it was Eliot who answered as he peered over Parker's shoulder at the item she now held in her hands.

"Because sweet Bryan has a bag with a luggage tag on that says that name," he explained with a sigh.

It certainly seemed as if the guy's secret was less dodgy business dealings and more an affair, just as Sophie and the others had suspected in the first place.

"Maybe he picked up the wrong bag at the airport?" said Hardison with a shrug, though even he didn't really believe such a thing.

Far as he could tell, Nate's niece was good people, maybe even better than the mastermind himself could claim. She didn't deserve to be treated so badly by this scummy fiancé of hers. Of course, if he was doing anything wrong, the team were going to find out about it and deal. It was what they did.

"There's one way to find out," whispered Sophie, turning herself away from Bryan and setting off her own cell so it appeared to ring in her hand.

The team listened as she faked a phone call to some nameless person who would be on Miss Windsor's staff. She named-dropped Annette Fuller, and Hardison kept an eye on their Mr Winters as he hovered at Sophie's back. He visibly reacted to the name, as they ought to have known he would, and the hacker told the rest of the team the situation.

"Oh God," Marissa whispered, as Nate moved to put an arm around her shoulders, hugging her close.

He hated to see her suffer like this and was starting to genuinely regret agreeing to investigate her fiancé in the first place. This wasn't the best way for her to find out her possible future-husband was a cheat, either in business or in his relationship with her. Unfortunately, it was a little too late to turn back now and he watched her eyes grow wider as Sophie and Bryan spoke to each other, every word coming loud and clear through the earbuds.

"_I'm sorry, did I just hear you say Annette Fuller? You work for her?"_

"_Not for her so much as with her. Do you know her?"_

"_I think we might be in the same line of work after all." _

That was all it took for Marissa as she reached to pull the comms from her ear. She couldn't listen to any more. It was bad enough knowing her man might be guilty of fraud or adultery, listening to him schmoozing with Sophie was too much, especially with so many panicked ideas running through her mind.

Nate was mindful of what he was saying to her with the whole team listening, but reluctant to take out his own earbud when the con was still in play. The job was important, but since it was all being done for Marissa, her needing her uncle right now was more vital.

"Okay, guys," he told the team. "We're done for now. We'll meet back here in the morning to go over what we know."

There was a vague argument between Parker and Eliot over why they couldn't go back to Nate's now, his understanding it was late and the need for Nate and Marissa to talk things over privately, whilst she didn't get it at all. Sophie found an excuse to end her conversation with Bryan and get away, and Hardison offered to drive her home, just before Nate disconnected comms with the rest of the team. He turned around to find Marissa had headed into the kitchen and was just now done searching all his cupboards, a bottle of scotch in her hand.

"You're going to drink that?" asked her uncle as he approached her and sat down on a stool by the counter.

"Why not?" his niece shrugged before turning to face him, planting two shot glasses down between them. "This is what _you_ do," she reminded him, with a nasty edge to her voice. "Things get tough, lose yourself in a bottle," she went on as she poured two healthy measures and pushed one across the counter top, which Nate just caught before it went too far and flew onto the floor.

"That's not… untrue," he changed what he was going to say in reply when he realised telling her she was being unfair would be incorrect and wrong.

There was a silent salute between uncle and niece before they both downed a shot each, him with ease, and her with a gasping cough as the fiery alcohol took her breath away. She wasn't much of a drinker, a few glasses of wine at a celebration or after a rough day at work maybe, but that was all. Still, she meant what she said. This was how Uncle Nate always coped with his problems, and she was here in his home. There was no reason she could see why this was a bad way to clear her head and heart of the pain it was suffering.

"You're not going to tell me to stop?" she checked once she had got her breath back, pouring another healthy measure of scotch into her glass and gesturing with the bottle for Nate to put his own glass in reach for a refill.

"You're a grown woman now, Missy," he told her, allowing her to fill his glass too. "If you want to get drunk, go ahead," he advised as she nodded as if to agree that's exactly what she wanted and swallowed another shot, "but you should remember that when the booze wears off, y'know, all of your problems, they'll still be there. Bryan will still be the same man, having made the same mistakes…"

"Mistakes?" she echoed crossly. "How do you _mistakenly_ screw people over in business?" she asked pointedly. "How do you _mistakenly_ have an affair?" she added more sadly, refilling her glass a third time now.

"We don't have any proof of anything yet," Nate shook his head, putting his hand over his own glass so it could not be filled this time. "You know when you were younger, remember when Maggie and me would have you to stay?" he smiled at the memory. "You were always so curious, always wanting to know how everything worked, why things were how they were."

"In other words, I was a nosey brat" she huffed, already feeling the effects of the booze apparently as she sloppily rounded the counter and sat down with a thud on the stool beside her uncle.

"No, no, I wouldn't say nosey, you were… inquisitive," he smiled fondly at her, easing the bottle out of her hand when she wasn't paying too much attention. "You were such a little truth-seeker, and I loved that because I knew you were never going to take crap from anybody."

"And I don't," said Marissa definitely, slurring just a little already. "I'm not. Bryan can go and… he can just go," she ended lamely, picking up her glass to drink and realising it was empty now.

"Well, if that's your decision, that's fine," Nate told her, getting her to look at him. "But Missy, don't do what I did. Don't turn into some bitter alcoholic that nobody wants to deal with, because in the end, only _you_ suffer in that," he advised. "If Bryan has done these things, then let's prove it. Let's get you some revenge before he even knows what hit him."

Marissa couldn't deny the idea appealed. She wanted the team to prove her fiancé's innocence if she were honest, so she could go back to her simple happy little life. Now the going was getting tough and she wanted to just blot it all out with booze, turning into the person she hated her uncle just a little bit for becoming after Sam's death, however selfish that might be.

"I missed you, Uncle Nate," she told him with a watery smile.

The mixture of not being used to the scotch and a few too many emotions caused tears in her eyes as she leant forward to hug him.

"I missed you too, Missy," he assured her, holding her tight. "I'm so sorry we lost touch. I'm sorry I let it happen."

The mastermind meant every word of what he said, though perhaps it had taken Marissa walking back into his life to make him realise just how much he did miss his old life. Sam was taken away, Maggie he drove away, but the rest of his family and friends, he had simply walked away from.

Perhaps the others didn't matter so much, but he and Marissa, his sweet little Missy, they always had such a good relationship. Now she was here and he really was pleased to see her, in spite of the less than pleasant circumstances in which she had arrived. If he could help her now, then he was damn well going to. Nobody was going to treat his niece this way and get away with it, not a chance.

_To Be Continued..._


	7. Chapter 7

_**(For disclaimer, etc. - see chapter 1)**_

Chapter 7

It was almost ten the next morning, and Nate was preparing for the team to arrive to go over what was known and what was going to be done about his niece's wayward fiancé. Marissa herself had enjoyed the warm and fuzzy feeling of too much scotch before falling asleep on the couch, emotionally exhausted and somewhat drunk. Nate hated that this was so hard on her. He could deal with the usual victims of crime and deceit, because he didn't know them personally. His crusade for justice was impersonal these days, and therefore much easier to handle.

Marissa was his blood relation and a young woman he had loved from the day she was born. To have her back in his life so suddenly might have been a wonderful surprise if it had not been due to her suffering the way she was. Bryan was up to something, that much was clear, and whether it was purely business fraud, a sordid affair, or a little of both, he was going to help her overcome this.

Right now, all Marissa wanted to overcome was the hangover she had woken up with. She really wasn't used to drinking at all, but apparently she was making some pretty crappy decisions lately, like throwing herself on Eliot Spencer and drinking scotch until she more or less passed out. Uncle Nate had woken her up when the team were due to arrive and she had opted to head outside for some fresh air in the hopes of both waking herself up and staving off the feeling of nausea in her stomach, while Nate made coffee and organised himself.

The first of the team to arrive was Eliot who found Marissa sat on the step to the back door of the building. She didn't look so great, which he might have expected. Women tended to get upset when the men in their lives turned out to be lying scum bags, and that much was understandable. Still, Marissa looking like she wanted to throw up right now was maybe taking things a little far.

"Hey," he greeted her. "You okay?"

"A world of no," she told him, smiling anyway because she knew a lot of this was probably her own fault. "Let's just say I'm my uncle's niece right now," she said with a sigh, "only scotch doesn't agree with me. Lack of practice, I guess."

Eliot took her moving over on the step as an invitation to join her and parked himself beside her then.

"You think he's worth the headache?" he asked her, resting his elbows on his knees.

"Honestly?" Marissa sighed. "I don't know anymore. The truth is, I was kind of hoping I'd come here, you guys would do your thing, and it'd turn out I'm just a paranoid bitch for ever suspecting Bryan of anything."

"Hey," Eliot looked mad at her for something then. "Maybe I don't know you that well, but I'm pretty good at reading people. You might be paranoid, but you're not a bitch," he assured her. "Trust me, I've met my fair share, I should know."

Marissa chuckled at the way he said it, smiling genuinely at the compliment he paid her at least. He didn't seem to think any the less of her for the way she behaved so far in Boston, in spite of the fact she wasn't too impressed with herself. Deflecting the attention of the conversation felt like a good plan then and she was pretty sure Eliot wouldn't mind.

"I'll bet you've had more than your fair share of girls throwing themselves at you, huh?" she said with a look.

Eliot opened his mouth to deny it but quickly closed it again when he realised there was little to no point.

"I've never gone short of company," he settled on in the end, the most honest answer he was prepared to give. "You're not exactly lacking in looks and style yourself," he said then, looking at her in such a way as to make it very clear he was thinking of the first time they met.

"I told you that really wasn't me," she shook her head then, blushing a pretty pink, Eliot noticed. "Not that I don't… I mean, seriously, look at you," she said with a giggle akin to a teenage girl because she felt so dumb saying it, "but y'know I really wouldn't have tried anything if I'd know how things were with you and Parker…"

"Me and Parker?" Eliot both looked and sounded completely shocked as he echoed the words she had said. "What the hell are you talking about?"

"Oh, come on!" Marissa gasped with as much genuine surprise as was showing on his face. "Seriously? She obviously likes you."

"No way," the hitter shook his head. "Parker is crazy, and yeah, okay, I like her, I'd go hell and high water to protect her because she's on my team, but there is no way we're... _close_ like that," he assured her.

Marissa could've argued with him, since she was pretty sure she was right. Parker was clearly jealous when she heard that the two of them had made out and that alone screamed 'jealous girlfriend' to Marissa. Maybe she was wrong, but she doubted it. Perhaps Eliot was just being a blind guy like so many before him. Right now, he was one of the few friends Marissa had, she wasn't about to make him angry or upset, it just wasn't worth it.

As if on cue, Parker showed up at that very moment, with Hardison trailing behind her. The second she saw Eliot and Marissa sat on the step together she looked pissed. The hitter considered he was just being paranoid when he thought he saw such a reaction, but the way Marissa was smiling now suggested she considered her point had been made for her.

"We all cool here?" Hardison checked, feeling as if he was missing something amongst all the pointed looks between the other three.

"Let's just get to this meeting already," said Eliot, looking less than impressed, as he got up and turned to go inside.

The others followed without another word, and the smile soon dropped off Marissa's face as she was forced to recall what this particular meeting was all about. Her lying, cheating ass of a fiancé was definitely up to no good and she was about to get the full details on the whys and the wherefores. She almost didn't want to know, almost wished she could run back home and forget all about this, carry on as if nothing happened, but her Uncle Nate was right, she wasn't that person. She couldn't just let this be swept under the rug, couldn't let Bryan get away with it if he was either a bent businessman, a cheater, or both.

Taking a deep breath, she steeled herself against whatever came next and took a seat with the team who were facing the vid-screen whilst Nate walked in front of it. Sophie had seemingly come in the other door and the crew were now assembled, ready for the briefing.

"Okay, let's start with the facts," the mastermind began. "What do we know for sure about Bryan Winters?"

"Well, I'm guessing you didn't hear all that happened between me and him?" said Sophie, looking between Nate and Marissa who shook their heads.

Hardison took the pause in conversation as a cue to take over, hitting his clicker and bringing up a bunch of written details on the screen.

"Seems your girl Annette Fuller is some hot-shot business woman doing some shady dealings," he explained. "See, she arranges for other like-minded business-type individuals to go to these conferences..."

"Like the one at the Hyperion Hotel?" Marissa guessed.

"Kind of, 'cept she has nothing to do with this one in particular," Hardison told her.

"According to Bryan, Annette's conferences are non-existent, usually events that were going to take place but have since cancelled," Sophie cut in. "She sells these unsuspecting assorted executives everything they need; flights, accommodation, tickets to the conference itself, duping them into paying for a whole bunch of stuff for a meeting they can't attend because it's not happening."

"But when these businessmen find out there's no meeting, they're gonna want their money back, right?" asked Parker, feeling a little confused.

"Sure, but they got no leg to stand on with Annette Fuller," Hardison told her. "These folks sign up for her deal and right there in the fine print is a clause that states if the conference gets cancelled she don't owe you jack," he explained, zooming in on a document he had presumably found on the Internet.

It showed quite clearly then just exactly what the hacker had said, though the print had been incredibly small before the enlargement.

"What does this woman and her scam have to do with Bryan?" asked Marissa, almost afraid to ask the question, but knowing she had to.

"He's feeding her clients," said Eliot, having heard all this when Sophie was being told first hand. "Probably getting a cut from the profit she makes."

"Which would explain the money moving around your accounts," noted Nate as he looked to his niece.

Now all attention seemed to be on the young woman at the centre of this whole mess. It was her fiancé that was involved in this, and ultimately her decision how they were to proceed. Marissa wasn't sure she wanted the responsibility of deciding what came next, she wasn't even sure if what Bryan was doing was so very bad. She still had her doubts as to what else might be happening between him and this Annette person but having five people staring at her, waiting for her to tell them what she wanted to do next was just way too much pressure.

"I don't know what I'm supposed to say," she admitted, putting her face in her hands a moment, then pushing her fingers back through her hair. "I can't take all of this in, I mean, what would you guys normally do?"

All eyes shifted from Marissa then and over to Nate. He was the one who ought to explain this, after all, it was his niece asking, and he was the one to know best how to deliver the news that usually they'd bury people like Bryan and Annette for their crimes.

"Well, these people are duping others out of cash, so we would usually stop that," he shrugged, "by any means necessary."

"Okay," Marissa nodded, though she said nothing else, apparently still thinking hard about what to do.

"Look, if you want time to think about this..." Eliot suggested. "I mean, we don't know if he's definitely having an affair or anything."

Parker snorted at that comment, barely holding in the laughter that rose in her throat.

"Oh come on!" she rolled her eyes as the hitter glared at her. "A hotel room with a double bed?" she reminded them. "The honeymoon suite? Even _I_ know that means sex."

The gang had to admit that it seemed pretty obvious, and as Parker quite rightly said if _she_ was seeing it then any 'normal' person who understood human behaviour certainly would.

In her heart of hearts, of course Marissa knew the odds were she was being cheated on, but having it laid out before her like this, the realisation suddenly seemed to hit her far too hard. Her life was wrecked. The man she loved was a crook and a thief, not like Uncle Nate and his crew that helped people, but out for his own gain. What hurt more was knowing he was probably both working and sleeping with some other woman, some woman he might just love, given the way he'd spoken to Sophie last night.

Five pairs of eyes boring into her and her head spinning with too many thoughts, Marissa did all she could think to do; she got up and ran. It was a childish thing to do, harking back to her days as a teenager when bolting to her room and locking herself in seemed like the best of plans when she was angry or upset. It was a little silly now, especially here in Boston where she had nowhere much to run to, but she couldn't help herself. She was out of the front door before her brain ever caught up with her legs, and stood on the stairway, crying hard and breathing heavily.

"Missy!" she had vaguely heard her uncle call to her as she left, but any other words spoken were easily lost as she slammed the door behind her.

"Shouldn't somebody maybe go after her?" asked Hardison after a long pause in which he had half expected Nate to give chase.

He seemed reluctant, probably because he wouldn't know what to say for the best right now, maybe even because his head was so much in the game he didn't want to lose focus. Shockingly, it was Eliot who got up, making a big deal, as if it was travesty for him to have to move.

"Sure, he'll go after her," said Parker the moment the hitter was on his feet. "After all they did have sex."

"We did _not_ have sex, Parker!" he turned and snapped at her from a couple of paces away.

"But you wanted to," she challenged him the very next moment.

Eliot ignored her on the grounds that if he answered he was going to end up in hot water with one or all members of the team. Admitting he'd like to bed Nate's niece was going to lead to bad things between himself and the mastermind, plus it had the potential to start an argument with Parker and consequently everybody else. If he denied it, well, that'd be a bare faced lie that no doubt Sophie and possibly the others would see through. It wasn't worth the hassle, and so Eliot said nothing at all as he jogged to the door and headed out to find Marissa.

"He's not going to be any help to her," sighed Sophie, getting up herself and glaring at Nate. "Men can't handle anything properly," she huffed as she strode out of the apartment too.

The grifter soon realised that neither Marissa nor Eliot had gone far. They were in the stairwell, him trying to talk sense into her, reminding her they'd agreed to be friends, but getting mad when she wouldn't listen. She wanted to run straight to the hotel, have this whole thing out with Bryan apparently, which Sophie totally understood. Of course, that didn't mean it was the best idea.

"Eliot," she interrupted with her usual grace. "Maybe you could pop back upstairs so I can talk to Marissa a minute," she suggested with a look that said it wasn't a request so much as an order she hoped he would follow.

He didn't have to do as she said, and if he really didn't want to then he wouldn't, but Eliot knew that out of all of them Sophie probably stood most chance of getting through to the very upset and confused young woman sat between them now. She was built for talking people around to her way of thinking, but she could also help them come to answers they needed and help them out of confusion if she set her mind to it.

Without a fight, the hitter walked away, and Sophie carefully lowered herself down onto the step beside Marissa, mindful of her skirt that rode up as she did so.

"I'm sorry," Nate's niece apologised, wiping her eyes with the back of her hand. "I'm such a kid, just running out like that."

"Hey, we're all allowed to lose it occasionally," Sophie sympathised, offering a handkerchief to the younger woman which she gratefully accepted. "This is a big deal for you, we all understand that. Bryan is the man in your life, someone you thought you could trust, and in at least one way if not two, he's proved unreliable."

Marissa choked on a laugh that lacked humour then.

"Unreliable?" she echoed with an undignified snort. "That's like the understatement of the century."

"Perhaps," agreed Sophie with a wry smile, "but at the end of the day he is just a bloke, one man, and we can deal with him," she promised, putting a hand to Marissa's arm and getting her attention. "We can play this any way you want. We can all back off and you can storm over to the Hyperion, knee this guy in the bollocks and tell him to go to hell, and that's fine," she explained. "_But_, that pain doesn't last. Your Uncle Nate and the team, we can hit him where it really hurts, we can make this man that hurt you really suffer," she said with relish.

Marissa couldn't deny that screwing over Bryan would feel good, given how he was apparently messing up the financials of many a businessman, as well as probably cheating on her. One way or the other, he had definitely proven not to be the man she thought he was, far removed from the person she had fallen in love with. She wasn't going to marry him now if he was the last guy on Earth, and honestly, she really wanted to see him go down for all this.

"Okay," she nodded, sniffing into the hanky a moment later. "I do, I want him to suffer, for everything," she said with a little more confidence then. "If you can make it work?"

"Oh, sweetheart," said Sophie as she got to her feet and held out a hand for Marissa to take. "This is what we do," she told her easily, helping her up.

The two women headed back up to Nate's apartment, both finding a smile by now, albeit Marissa's was decidedly watery. There was a bit more confidence in her step as she headed in through the door with Sophie on her heels, only for a mad scramble to take place in front of the vid-screen.

"What's going on?" she asked curiously, as Hardison hammered away on his keyboard, whilst Eliot and Nate seemed to be trying in vain to hide the vid-screen that was far too large to fully obscure.

"Nothing, nothing," all three were saying, whilst Parker stayed quiet throughout.

"Come on, whatever it is I want to know," said Marissa, looking pointedly at the blonde as she sat down. "Please, Parker," she urged her, sure that at least she would tell her the truth, completey unfiltered.

"They don't want you to see the camera feed to the Hyperion," she shrugged. "They think if you see Bryan kissing Annette, you'll run off again."

Though Eliot and Nate both glared at Parker for her trouble, Marissa barely noticed and was certainly glad to be told the truth. She swallowed hard and took a deep breath as she looked at the pair trying to block her view.

"Please move," she urged them, and though neither men looked eager, they did do as she asked then. "Hardison, please?" she said to the hacker, and with a sigh he hit the button that put the pictures back on the screen.

Everyone waited for Marissa's reaction, assuming there would be a scream, some tears, an angry shout. Instead, it was Sophie that reacted first and loudest.

"No way!" she gasped as she watched the couple on the screen part from their kiss. "Nate, that is not Annette Fuller," she said definitely.

"Then who is she?" he asked, as Marissa continued to stare at her cheating fiancé a moment, and then back over her shoulder at Sophie for her answer.

"She's a grifter."

_To Be Continued..._


	8. Chapter 8

**A/N: Shout out to the lovely folks that left reviews so far - thank you, I appreciate you taking the time :)**

_**(For disclaimer, etc. - see chapter 1)**_

Chapter 8

"She's what?" asked Marissa in apparent shock at the revelation that had spilled from Sophie's lips.

As if it wasn't enough of a trauma to realise her fiancé was a lying, cheating, scumbag in so many ways, now it turned out the woman he was having an affair with might not be all she seemed either.

"This woman is a thief?" Nate checked with Sophie who turned wide eyes from the screen to look at him, "More so than we thought?"

"Definitely," she confirmed. "I worked with her once, and trust me I wish I hadn't," she rolled her eyes. "She's cocky and arrogant and…"

"She beat you out of a con, didn't she?" said Eliot with a smirk he couldn't help, in spite of how serious this situation was right now.

"No!" the team's grafter denied it hotly. "Well, sort of, but that's not the point..."

"Guys, I'm kinda getting a headache here," said Marissa, having now sunk down into the chair, dragging her hands back through her hair. "Can someone please tell me what all this means?" she urged them.

"It means that this woman, whatever her real name is, might be playing Bryan as much as they're both playing these businessmen they're duping," explained Hardison. "Not that it makes him a better person..."

Nate looked from his hacker to his niece then and sighed. Marissa really didn't need all this, it was too much for her to handle. She wasn't like the team, not a thief in any way at all, just a young woman whose would-be-husband could not be trusted in a multitude of ways apparently. To think Nate had been pleased to see her when she came here and thought that solving her problems would be as easy now as when she was a child. A band aid on a grazed knee was so simple, compared to conning a man and his grifter business partner / lover. It was beyond messy, and for once he had to consider the feelings of the victim above all else when planning what happened next.

"So, he's not necessarily so guilty of deceiving his clients," said Marissa after a long moment, "but he is still guilty of deceiving me."

"That's true," Eliot agreed, looking sideways at her. "So what do you want to do about that?" he checked.

All eyes and ears waited for the answer that came next, that only Marissa herself could give. Her eyes looked like they would burn a hole right through Hardison's precious screens as she stared at the freeze-frame of her man kissing another woman.

"I wanna kill him," she admitted with a humourless chuckle escaping the back of her throat.

"Eliot can do that," chimed in Parker, earning herself a couple of choice looks from the others and somewhat of a surprised glance from Marissa herself, "but he probably won't," the little thief confirmed, backing away before she landed herself in more serious trouble with the hitter.

"I do want him to suffer," said Marissa in all seriousness, as her eyes returned to the screen a moment. "I want both of them to suffer. So, how do we do this?" she asked then, craning her neck to look at Nate where he was stood with Sophie still.

It wasn't unusual for the mastermind not to reply to such a question immediately or with a straight answer, even Marissa herself knew that. Any big stuff that came up when she was a kid, any questions she would ask that might require careful consideration always got it from Uncle Nate. He didn't just react because he knew the consequences that could have. He went through things from every angle trying to find the best one before diving in. She never failed to be impressed by how his mind worked, and he was not going to let her down today, she was sure of that, long before he ever opened his mouth.

"I was thinking about that," he said thoughtfully as he wandered closer to the screen and then turned back to glance at his hacker. "Hardison, you said there was money going in and out of Bryan's accounts that couldn't be tracked?" he recalled.

"Yeah, I'm guessing it's this Annette chick," the hacker agreed, as he threw the documents up onto the vid-screen for all to see, "but it's not obvious where it's coming from or going to."

Nate smiled that particular smile that always meant he was having a plan, and a devious one at that. Even Marissa recognised it from years ago, when it was tricks to catch criminals like his own team were now, rather than cons to bring down big businessman as a thief himself.

"How about we _make_ it obvious?" the mastermind suggested, causing frowns on a few faces, not least Sophie's own.

"Make the advertising scam obvious?" she guessed, though she wasn't sure she was quite right in her thinking this time.

"No, that's white collar, basic stuff, and hard to prove," Nate shook his head. "I had something a little more special in mind..." he told them without further explanation as he strolled away into the kitchen.

Marissa called after him with her own idea, but he didn't seem to hear even though he was still close enough.

"Does it involve knocking those two into next Thursday?" she wanted to know, still understandably upset and angry both.

"It could," said Eliot easily, earning him an unimpressed look from Sophie. "I'm just sayin', it could," he shrugged.

They all knew the hitter was quite capable of pummelling Bryan Winters into the ground. The mark was a tall guy but didn't look to be particularly built for a fight. Besides, even those that were prepared for Eliot Spencer had crawled rather than walked away after a battle with him. Still, that kind of behaviour was not going to help this time around. Beating up on Bryan might teach him a lesson but not for long, and it wouldn't deal with Annette, or Erica Lumley as Sophie had known her. Eliot didn't hit women anyway, not unless they hit him first. Right now it seemed Marissa would like to though, and Sophie knew that Nate really wasn't helping his niece by being secretive. It wasn't exactly doing her nerves any good either.

"Come on, Nate!" she urged him, giving chase into the kitchen, the team following behind. "Share the plan!

"I'm not sure I want him to," Parker noted with a nervous expression. "He's doing that smile again, its creeeeepy!"

Nate was hardly aware he was even smiling at all as he made himself a coffee. He would tell the team the plan in his own good time, and he was sure it would work. One thing was for sure, Bryan Winters and Erica Lumley had picked the wrong family to mess with, and they were about to learn that fact, the hard way.

* * *

><p>"Room service!" a chirpy voice called before a shifty looking maid with a blonde ponytail let herself into the hotel room.<p>

It was thankfully empty, which pleased Parker to no end since it made her life all the easier. It took minimal searching before she located the cell phone she was looking for. She was about to leave when she heard female giggling from behind the door of the bathroom, and then a man groaning in a way even she understood. Making a face that was both unimpressed and grossed out, she was gone from the room even faster than she had entered, hurrying to the emergency staircase and heading down.

Sure nobody was watching, Parker skipped across the street and opened up the back of Lucille 2.0, slipping in unnoticed. Inside, Hardison was waiting for the phone and immediately had it hooked up to his computer, to work his 'sweet funky' as he phrased it. Nate watched over his shoulder as the screen lit up and data scrolled through at speed.

"You really think this'll work, Uncle Nate?" asked Marissa over the comms.

She was stood in the foyer of the Hyperion Hotel, shaking like a leaf in spite of the fact she had volunteered for this little mission. Nate had envisaged Sophie or Parker taking point, though both ideas had their downsides with Erica knowing the former and the latter still struggling with the grift. Marissa was the natural choice, given her fiancé was involved, and she seemed quite ready and willing to give this couple the dressing down of their lives, at least until now.

"I promise you, Missy, it'll work," her uncle swore to her from his place in the van. "We're all right here for you, you don't have to worry."

"We've got your back, Marissa," Eliot assured her, loud and clear in her ear thanks to the comms, despite the fact he was on the other side of the marble floor in a security guards uniform.

"Any problems, we can be there in an instant," promised Sophie next, sat in the restaurant area a little further away, posing as a guest.

Everybody was here for her and everything was set. Marissa wanted to do this, she really did, but that didn't mean she wasn't freaking out on the inside. The team were professionals, they ran cons and faced danger and all on a regular basis. She worked in an office, filing paperwork and answering phones; it hardly compared!

"Okay, that's it," said Hardison in her ear. "Last piece of the puzzle in place," he confirmed, just moments before Parker appeared next to Marissa as if from nowhere, handing her the key card for Bryan and Annette's room and the cell that had been lifted from there.

Marissa closed her eyes a moment and let out a long breath, causing the blonde beside her to look at her as if she were the crazy one right now.

"Wish me luck?" the non-thief asked hopefully.

"For what?" Parker checked, really not getting why a person would say such a thing.

"You don't need luck," said Eliot in both their ears then. "You got us."

That at least made Marissa smile as she fixed a determined look on her face and a confident bounce in her step, walking away with her head held high. The ride up in the elevator still felt like the longest trip of her life, and yet suddenly she was faced with the door she'd been dreading.

She meant what she said, she did want to do this. Bryan needed taking down and if anyone had the right to do it, it was Marissa. He had duped her more than anybody else and she needed this closure if she was ever going to get over the betrayal. Still, facing down the man she had loved and the professional thief he was working with still gave her the shakes.

"We're right here with you, Missy," said Nate in her ear then, the final push she needed as she slipped the keycard through the lock and opened up the door.

Two startled, mostly naked people reacted with shock as Marissa strolled into the room, swallowing down disgust at the sight that met her eyes.

"Hello, Bryan," she said coldly. "And it's Annette, right?" she greeted the older woman who was so not ready for such an introduction. "Or should I call you Erica?" she added smartly.

Not a person on the Leverage team failed to smile on Marissa's behalf then. She was doing great so far, now if she could only hold her nerve long enough to see this whole thing through...

_To Be Continued..._


	9. Chapter 9

_**(For disclaimer, etc. - see chapter 1)**_

Chapter 9

Marissa Kennedy felt sick as she faced the man who she had once thought she loved, and the woman he was apparently in bed with, both by business means and in the sense of an affair. The fact they were soaking wet from a shower and barely dressed wasn't helping her feel less angry or upset, but the adrenaline of being part of a con was exactly the rush she always guessed it must be, as she launched into her well-prepared speech.

"What? Surprised to see me?" she asked Bryan, her attention then shifting to the woman at his side who was attempting to wrap herself in the comforter from the bed. "Or more surprised that I know your real name?" she asked her.

"Stay calm, Missy," said Nate in her ear, already hearing her tone shift some - the last thing they needed was for her to get hysterical.

"Marissa, this isn't..." began Bryan, before his eyes shifted to Annette who was not denying anything. "You're not...? I mean, I know your real name, right?" he checked.

"Of course, honey," Erica told him sweetly.

Clearly the grifter was formulating a new plan, as such people had to do when they got in a spot. Sophie was audibly muttering obscenities about her one-time colleague in the thieving business, and was quickly asked to hold her tongue. Marissa was grateful for that, the voices in her head were going to go from comforting to too much noise in a second if she wasn't careful.

"Yeah, you can try to keep on lying," she said to the grifter before her. "I get that's what con artists do, but you're really not the best at it," she went on, holding aloft the cell that Parker had easily swiped from the room just a few minutes before.

Light glinted off the screen as she presented her trophy and immediately the grifter made a move to grab it. Marissa moved faster, anticipating what came next.

"Uh-uh," she said smartly. "If I let you take this, you'll run out of here, and I'm. Not. Done. Yet." she told her pointedly.

Marissa hid the fact she was shaking inside as best she could, and to be honest the fear and panic was dissipating, adrenaline taking over as she talked down to the woman that would both steal her man and encourage him into bad business practises. She had messed with a lot of people, it seemed, but Marissa was going to make sure she never made the mistake of crossing her again.

"Now, where was I?" she said. "Oh, that's right, you're a thieving whore," she told Erica with a fake smile.

"Marissa, don't, please, I'm..." Bryan began, though the moment he took a step towards her, she turned on him.

"I'm warning you, Bryan," she told him angrily. "You say anything that sounds like sorry, I'm gonna take a swing at you," she told him, closing her eyes tight out of both frustration and the fact that looking at him was too hard right now. "No amount of apologising is going to make up for what you've done," she said then, opening her eyes to meet his and showing him the anger and hurt he had caused.

"Look, you two clearly have your little lovers spat to figure out," said Erica with a look of disdain that Marissa might have knocked off for her if she was just a little more confident. "I'll just throw on some clothes and…"

"Why bother?" Marissa countered, getting in her way. "Clothes are only going to hold you up in grabbing the next sucker that comes along, right?" she shrugged. "Besides, don't'cha wanna know what a very good friend of mine has done with this little baby?" she grinned almost evilly as she waved the grifter's own cell in her face.

"Marissa, do not say any of our names," Nate told her loud and clear then through the earbud she wore. "She can't know we're your back up on this, okay?"

"What are you talking about?" said Erica with a smile that wavered with a little uncertainty. "You haven't done anything," she shook her head, though somehow she didn't seem to quite believe it.

"_I_ haven't," she admitted, "but I know a very smart guy who has," she smiled too sweetly.

In her ear, Marissa heard Hardison call himself 'the man' and chuckle. If she weren't so concentrated on the situation she was in, on the anger and pain she was channelling to make this work, she might've laughed too.

"There you go," she said to Erica, tossing her cell into her waiting hands. "Call one of your contacts, see if they'll talk to you," she challenged, folding her arms across her chest.

Her eyes flitted to Bryan just a moment when he spoke up next.

"What's going on?" he wanted to know, not sure which woman to look to for an answer.

He was completely baffled right now, and it showed. So much for Marissa thinking she was set to marry a smart guy. Seemed he wasn't even as clever as she was, though of course she'd had help in catching the bad guy... or girl as was more accurate.

"What did you do? Wipe my cell?" asked Erica with a snort of laughter. "Are you that dumb?"

"All your contacts are still there," the other woman shrugged her shoulders, her gaze steely as she stared the grifter down. "Except now, every single one now knows what you're doing to them and _nobody_ is going to do business with you _ever_ again."

As smart-ass heroic rants went, it wasn't exactly the greatest, and Marissa knew it. She knew because both Uncle Nate and Sophie had prepped her for this and made it clear she was likely to get a laugh out of the mark at this point. She seemed amateurish, she would be underestimated, as Eliot so often was. Just because he could bust heads, people assumed he was dumb. Just because Marissa was a woman, and worse than that, Bryan's _other_ woman, who was stupid enough to want to marry him up to this point, of course the clever thief would assume she was an idiot too.

"Honey, I can get a hundred clients faster than you can blink," said Erica with a flourish. "I don't care," she added easily as she reached for her dress, turning her back on the audience of two as she put it on.

"Oh, but you will care," said Marissa with a smirk she couldn't help when she heard Sophie respond in her ear.

"_Too bloody right she will!"_

Bryan cut into her line of sight, just as Erica turned around to glare at her. Marissa cared for neither of them right now, just held her ground and kept her head high. She was the only one here who was innocent. Sure, she had a team of thieves screwing up the plans of Annette/Erica and Bryan, but they screwed her over first. Playground rules _always_ applied.

"Marissa, what have you done?" asked her so-called fiancé, something she would never call him again.

"A friend of mine might've done a little _anti-publicity_," she said smartly, keeping her eyes trained on Bryan's own even as the woman they spoke of dressed herself in the background. "Did you know all her accounts and funding are connected to drug cartels and people trafficking?"

"Of course they're not," the 'lady' herself cut in, before Marissa answered her, with Nate speaking the exact same words in her ear and the very same moment.

"They are now," they smiled together. "According to the paper trail, those are just the kinds of people you work with," she continued, eyes now on Erica alone as her face turned ashen. "If I were you, I'd do that disappearing act now."

As predicted, the other woman went for the door at that precise moment, grabbing up her bag as she went.

"Annette!" Bryan immediately called for her, catching the attention of both women and not really sure what to do with it.

Here stood the only two women in his life he ever really loved, and he genuinely had loved Marissa. His head had been turned, that was all, first by the promise of wealth and power, and then by the feminine wiles of a woman he knew as Annette Fuller. She was almost too good to be true, a fact proven right now as he realised all too easily how he had been duped. If what Marissa said was true, and he didn't real doubt her, there was a good chance that Erica, as was her real name, had been playing him from the start.

"I... I'm sorry?" he said, to both women at once, since he honestly wasn't sure who he owed the bigger apology right now.

"Drop dead, you stupid little man," said Erica with evident disdain. "You think you're the only one?" she laughed with no humour to be found in the sound of it. "I have a dozen lackeys like you. I'm surprised you managed to handle the two of us at once this long," she said, with a glance at Marissa who it appeared was hardly the doe-eyed innocent she'd had her down for after all. "You're pathetic."

"Can't argue with her there," the other woman agreed, even as her adversary walked out, slamming the door behind her.

Bryan looked like he was still in two minds whether to go after her or stay. Whether he was more angry at Erica for duping him, or desperate to want her back regardless, even he couldn't have explained. Marissa considered asking if he had any explanation for what he'd done, though she wondered if she would believe anything he said from here on out anyway.

"Marissa, what have you done?" he exclaimed, more frustration than anger showing on his face, though through his voice alone, he seemed enraged.

"Nate, I don't like the sound of that guy," said Eliot in everyone's ear and Marissa wasn't exactly sorry to here her uncle's response.

"Okay, Eliot, head on up there, but no busting in," he advised the hitter. "Marissa stay calm, you have back up if you need it, just yell," he assured her. "Sophie, keep your head down please, I don't want Erica knowing you're involved in this," he told the grifter who smiled in spite of herself - he really did think of everything, even in a crisis.

All attention soon returned to the argument in the honeymoon suite as Marissa grew some more confidence out of being reminded the whole team was behind her. Bryan never raised a hand to her before, but then he'd never been busted with another woman before either. She liked knowing Eliot was within yelling distance. Nobody was dumb enough to mess with the hitter, she was certain of that.

"Don't panic, _sweetheart,"_ she told her ex-fiancé, a cold emphasis on what ought to have been a term of endearment. "Your reputation is clean. When we linked in your precious Annette to the bad guys, we made sure your name was nowhere on any of her paperwork," she confirmed, wondering now why she'd bothered to make such a request, thought in her hearts of hearts she could not condemn him as easily as she could a thief she did not know. "As far as the world is concerned, you never even met her."

"Right now, I wish I never had," Bryan admitted, voice softening to that sickly sweet way that all men could turn on when in trouble and making attempts to slither out like a snake. "Marissa, I... I know it doesn't help, and it's not what you want to hear, but I am sorry, about all of this," he told her, moving in closer, so much so she could hardly stand it. "I really never meant to get in so deep..."

"In deep to what, Bryan?" she asked him, backing up a step to keep away from him. "Deep into the dodgy business deals? Or deep into the whore you were working with?" she asked, tears glistening in her eyes that made her so angry with herself right now - she needed to be strong, just a little longer.

"She wasn't... She's not..." Bryan tried to protest, but Marissa wouldn't hear it.

"Yes, she is," she said emphatically. "She didn't love you, Bryan. _I_ did." she insisted, a hand over the heart that had borne his name too long, but no more. "I loved you so much and..." she faltered. "How dare you do this to me?" she exploded too suddenly, enough to make him and all those listening via the earbuds physically jump. "I gave you everything, I thought we were forever. What kind of a fool am I?" she laughed humourlessly at herself, almost forgetting anyone else could hear by now.

"Marissa, sweetheart, please," replied Bryan reaching out for her, but she flinched away. "I'm the fool! I thought I could just do a couple of deals, make some extra cash," he tried to explain. "It was for our wedding and our future, I swear, but then Annette was... she was so persuasive."

"I don't have to listen to this," said Marissa, knowing she was about to crumble and determined this slimeball was not going to see her cry over him.

She went for the door but barely got a hold of the handle, as he grabbed at her shoulders and pulled her back.

"Yes, you do," he told her, whether out of anger or desperation was unclear.

Eliot didn't care. He heard a cry of shock or pain from Marissa and wasted no time in kicking the door wide open. He did so just in time to see Nate's niece free herself from her fiancé's grasp and swing her fist. There was an audible crack as she caught Bryan's nose full force with a right hook, causing him to reel back.

"Damn!" she swore as she shook her hand that hurt like hell.

"You okay?" asked Eliot, going straight to her, whilst Bryan lie back on the bed groaning, blood streaming between the fingers clamped over his quite possibly broken nose.

"What's happening?" asked Nate in their ears, as Marissa squeaked over the pain in her hand still.

"It's okay," the hitter assured his boss. "_She_ hit _him_," he confirmed with a smirk that could not be held back.

He did like a woman who could take care of herself.

"Nice one, Marissa!" said Sophie, with evident glee, and that at least made her smile through her pain, as Eliot went over to her bleeding fiancé and pulled him up by his shirt.

"Trust me, son," he said in a low and dangerous voice. "You think she hits hard? You'd best stay down, or you'll have me to deal with next," he promised him, in full menacing mode that hardened criminals and terrorists had shied away from in the past.

With that, he and Marissa left the room, though just as Eliot was pulling the busted door closed as best he could behind them, she stopped and went back. Though it hurt to do so, Marissa managed to get the engagement ring off her finger, and threw it back into the room. It bounced along the carpet and went somewhere under the bed - she didn't care enough to even tell Bryan it was there.

Marissa walked away with her head held high, and fingers throbbing like crazy. She continued to shake her right hand as she and Eliot entered the elevator and rode down to the ground, him assuring the team they were fine and he was bringing her back to the van now.

"You okay there?" he checked with her a moment later, looking to her hand that clearly hurt. "Clocked him pretty hard, huh?" he sympathised with the injury she sustained, which wouldn't be so bad for him, but clearly was for an inexperienced female non-fighter.

"I'll live," she said bravely as they walked out into the foyer, trying to hide her injury from anyone who might see.

"See, this is why you never hit a guy with a closed fist," Eliot told her, getting the door for her.

"But it is on occasion hilarious," she said with a smile that even turned into a laugh as she realised she and Hardison had spoken the exact same words at the very same moment.

"Browncoats unite, girl," the hacker chuckled through her earbud. "That is shiny, right there."

Eliot rolled his eyes at what he guessed was some dumb geek reference he didn't get. Unfortunately, Marissa wasn't so much in a laughing mood anymore. She was barely holding onto a smile as Nate and Hardison opened the back doors of the van and offered a hand to help her inside.

"Missy?" her uncle checked as she sat down beside him, biting her lip too hard.

"She'll live," Eliot was saying as he swung himself into the front seat beside Sophie and Parker. "Nothing broken, far as I can tell."

"Then you didn't look hard enough," the grifter told him, peering over her shoulder and wincing at the sound of sobbing in her ear.

Marissa's hand might not be broken, but her heart most definitely was.

_To Be Continued..._


	10. Chapter 10

_**(For disclaimer, etc. - see chapter 1)**_

Chapter 10

The Leverage crew were built for helping people. As a team it was what they did, and they did it well. Get your money back, your reputation maybe. Bring down the bad guy in the best way they could, fix all the financials and such in the meantime. Unfortunately, not everything was so easy to mend. You couldn't steal back the pieces of a broken heart; no amount of money could buy a genuine smile from a person in floods of tears.

Nate did his best to be of comfort to Marissa but words failed him in such a situation. In the back of the van on the way home to the apartment, he put his arm around her shoulders and just let her cry. Hardison kept his head down for the most part, concentrating on his laptop, but offering a couple of Firefly jokes eventually in the hopes of raising a smile. It didn't really work, and he hadn't exactly expected it to.

By the time Eliot had driven them home, Marissa had few tears left to cry, but she was still clearly hurting. You didn't get over such a betrayal in a matter of moments, it took days, weeks, months even. Sophie offered to be a sounding board, a fellow female in solidarity to talk to about her pain, but she politely declined. She needed to be alone a little while, if that was okay.

Whilst Uncle Nate assured her she could have whatever she wanted, including space, time, and silence, he did insist Marissa let them get a proper look at her injured hand first. Eliot winced for her as he made her wiggle her fingers and ran expert hands over her own. Satisfied she really hadn't broken anything, he gave her an ice pack for the swelling and let her go do her own thing.

It had been hours, the team had headed to their respective homes a while, but were due back soon for dinner. Nate had stayed down in the bar and suggested Eliot cook in the kitchen down there too. The gang could eat out of the way of the apartment, leaving Marissa to her contemplation until she was ready to face the world again.

"You really think we should leave her up there all alone?" asked Sophie, when she arrived in time to eat.

"It's how she deals," shrugged Nate, downing his drink. "I have this," he gestured to the now empty glass. "She likes the quiet alone time," he recalled, moving to fetch the bottle of scotch for a refill.

Today had been a little too much to bear. Crying clients were bad enough, but his niece in floods of tears almost completely broke his heart. He was only glad they exposed her fiancé for what he really was and ensured she was free of him. The only thing worse than Marissa getting her heart broken now was it happening later when she was in so much deeper.

Of course, Nate would have preferred to see this Bryan guy suffer far more than embarrassment and a broken nose. Marissa was clearly a much better person that he was, insisting that as much as she wanted this situation dealt with, she could not so easily condemn a man she had loved so much to the same punishment as Erica Lumley. She didn't have it in her to hate that much, she thought she did at first, but she really didn't. Nate was equal parts frustrated by and proud of her for that, he realised, as he offered drinks to the rest of the team.

In the kitchen, Eliot adjusted the bandanna that held his hair back, as he checked the pans on the stove.

"Table's set," Parker told him as she appeared behind him, despite the fact he hadn't heard the door at all. "You need help in here?"

"Not really," he told her, shaking his head. "But somebody should probably go check on Marissa," he said without really thinking about who he was talking to.

Looking back at the blonde, he watched for her reaction. She was supposed to be jealous about what happened between himself and Nate's niece, at least if Marissa's theory was true. Eliot couldn't deny that Parker had been acting extra crazy since the brunette arrived in town, but the idea of her being green with envy over him seemed strange, a little flattering maybe, but still strange.

"I can go," she shrugged easily as she turned away. "You think she needs more ice for her hand?" she checked from half way to the door, as if she had the thought almost too late.

Honestly, Eliot was stunned it occurred to her at all. Parker was sweet in her way, but not always very thoughtful where the feelings of others were concerned. When considering that she really hadn't seemed to care for Marissa much up to now, her behaviour right now was even more odd.

"I thought you didn't like her," he said, going to the freezer, then turning around and fixing her with a look as he tossed the ice pack into her waiting hands.

"I didn't," shrugged Parker, kicking her legs back and forth from her place sat on the counter top now, "but her boyfriend was a real a-hole and she's crying over him a whole lot, so maybe she did love him," she decided as she hopped down from the counter. "You only cry over a person when you love them, right?" she asked, and somehow Eliot couldn't help but wonder if there was more to that question that there seemed on the surface.

"I guess," he answered simply, feeling it was safer than delving any deeper right now.

Parker seemed to accept that as response enough, taking the ice pack and skipping away to the stairs.

Up in the apartment, she wasn't surprised to find the living area empty, assuming Marissa was in the spare room she'd been sleeping in or maybe even the bathroom. As Parker understood it, women cried in bathrooms a lot, at least they always seemed to on TV and in movies.

Sniffling from upstairs made Parker stop short of exploring the rest of the apartment for signs of life.

"Hey," she called up to Marissa who was now visible sat on the upper floor, with her legs dangling down through the gaps in the rail. "You're not gonna throw yourself off there, right?" the thief checked. "'Cause Eliot's way better at catching people than I am," she told her.

Parker wasn't sure if it was a laugh or a sob that came from her friend's niece then, and didn't like to ask. She chose to just climb on up the stairs to where Marissa sat, without another word until she got there.

"I brought you another ice pack for your hand," she explained, holding out said item.

"Thank you, Parker," Marissa sniffed, wiping her face with the back of her uninjured hand before accepting the ice pack and placing it gently on her bruised knuckles.

The blonde turned to go but didn't quite make it. She shouldn't care about Nate's niece all that much, it wasn't like she was really part of the team. Still, being related to one of the 'family', it made them strangely connected. Parker couldn't quite fathom if they ought to be like distant cousins or something like that. It was a little too much for her head to unscramble since families were hardly her strong point, at least not nice families that truly cared for each other. Still, something in her said she shouldn't just walk away from Marissa when she was upset, a voice in her head that might have been Sophie's or even Eliot's said she ought to stay, or at least ask how Marissa was doing.

Turning back, she sat herself down next to the other woman, threading her legs through the rail to take up a similar position to the brunette. Putting an awkward arm around her shoulders, she patted Marissa's arm lightly.

"There, there," she said, in what she hoped was the right way.

Marissa fought an odd smile that came to her lips then. Parker was the most curious mixture of sweet and strange, but that was okay. She was making an effort when Marissa needed a friend and that was a huge deal, especially when she knew from what Uncle Nate had said that this kind of thing didn't come easy to the emotionally-stunted thief.

"I'll survive," she said bravely, "but thank you, Parker, for the ice and for being so kind to me," she smiled. "Y'know, you guys have been so great, helping me deal with Bryan and all."

"It's kinda what we do," she shrugged, retracting her arm as soon as possible and putting her hands in her lap. "So, you loved Bryan, right?" she asked, straight out, like Parker asked everything.

"Yup, I really did," sniffed Marissa. "I just can't believe how blind I was about him," she added thoughtfully.

"But you made out with Eliot," the thief stated then, a fact that couldn't be denied given that it had already been confessed, and two other members of the team had borne witness to the event!

"I did," Marissa nodded. "And, well, that was poor judgement," she shrugged. "I mean, I'm not saying Eliot isn't totally hot or that it didn't feel good to be close to him, because it really did," she admitted, "but I almost made myself as bad as Bryan, and that was not smart," she shook her head, making a sweeping motion with her hand to hammer home her point.

Parker was more aware of Marissa's description of Eliot and the kissing that had gone on, she wasn't really paying attention to anything else that was said. She had often wondered herself what would happen if she just up and kissed the team's hitter. He was entirely attractive in a physical sense, and very sweet to her sometimes, though she doubted the rest of the crew paid much mind to it.

It wasn't as if Parker was the type to go ensnaring men, prowling for partners either sexual or romantic, but she liked Eliot a lot and thoughts had crossed her mind that she just couldn't help. Such ideas had only intensified, along with a bubbling angry kind of feeling, whenever she saw him getting close with Marissa.

"It's weird," she said aloud without even thinking about it. "Eliot has had a lot of women, and I mean a _lot_," she emphasised. "I never thought I cared much, 'cause y'know why would I, but..."

"But I was different," said Marissa with a knowing look. "Think about it, Parker," she urged her. "From what Uncle Nate told me, the other women Eliot has dated or whatever, they come and go. They never last long, and you never expect them to, right?"

"Uh-huh," the blonde agreed with a nod of her head.

"Well, with me having a connection to the team, understanding what you do and all, and not being freaked out by it," Marissa went on, "maybe it occurred to you that I might stick around?"

Parker was frowning by now but wasn't really aware of it. If what Marissa said was true then that meant she didn't want Eliot to have a girlfriend, like a real one that stayed and was there all the time. Truth be known, Parker wasn't much for any kind of interloper trespassing into her little family she had built up around her. Sure, things had been weird when Nate was in jail, but now he was back and it was all on a relatively even keel. When Marissa showed up, Parker realised the dynamic was shifting again, not least because Nate's attention was diverted. She really hadn't expected Eliot to lose his focus on her and the team, specifically her. It made Parker's stomach tie up in uncomfortable knots at the thought of Eliot taking his attention away from her too much. She really didn't like it at all.

"Parker?" Marissa interrupted her deep thought, putting a careful hand to her arm, mindful of being thrown over the barrier if she startled her. "I never would've made a move on Eliot if I knew how you felt," she told her, with an honesty Parker had rarely seen in anyone, except maybe Nate.

"Yeah," she seemed to agree or understand, though she was frowning still. "I'm not even sure _I_ knew I felt anything," she admitted, as Marissa tried her best not to laugh.

It seemed quite ridiculous, to not realise you were in love or close to it, until somebody told you. Still, it could happen, and Parker was not the first and doubtless would not be the last that it happened to.

"Don't worry about it," Marissa told her new found friend with a smile. "Hell, Uncle Nate and Sophie _do_ know how they feel about each other, and they _still_ can't figure things out," she rolled her eyes.

"Oh my God, I know!" the blonde gasped, finding it incredible.

After all, Parker was well aware she was the least observant when it came to people's feelings. Even she was more than clear on the fact Nate and Sophie loved each other and yet never quite managed to solve the situation between them. She wondered if it would be easier or harder to figure out what might exist between herself and Eliot. As if on cue, he walked in through the door.

"Parker? Marissa?" he called both their names as he entered, glancing up in a split second, despite the fact they made no sound - he was just that aware.

It was a relief to the hitter to realise both women were actually smiling at this point, a sight he really hadn't expected to see when he came up here. Honestly, he half wondered if there would be blood by now.

"I swear, Parker, you can have the guy," Marissa whispered to the thief, "but don't hate me if I really, _really_ enjoy the view."

"Nah, you can do that," the blonde allowed her. "Pretty sure you'd have to be blind not to," she sighed as she got to her feet then.

Marissa followed suit, up to a point, since she fully expected to be following the blonde down the stairs. Perhaps she ought to have known better, given the stories she had heard about Parker before now, and the evidence she had seen recently of how wacky she could be.

One minute they were stood side by side, with Eliot peering up at them, asking if anybody was hungry. The next moment, Parker had climbed over the rail and was throwing herself down to the ground, landing safely in Eliot's arms.

"Dammit, Parker!" he complained, despite the fact he had seen the move coming and caught her with ease.

"Geez, you must have some faith in him," Marissa said, one hand to her chest and breathing unevenly from the panic that rose up in her when she saw a person she knew bodily throw herself from a balcony!

"Always," was Parker's quiet response that only Eliot possibly could have heard.

It brought a smile to the hitter's lips that was completely unintentional, but she'd caught him off guard, like she so often did. Parker was just about the only person left in the world that was able to surprise him, and the weirdest thing was, Eliot kind of liked that about her.

He had set her back on her feet and recovered from the strangest moment by the time Marissa reached the bottom of the stairs to meet them.

"What's the look for?" he asked as she gazed at them in such a way as he couldn't quite fathom.

"Nothing," she shrugged, taking the ice pack off her hand and peering at the multi-coloured bruises on her knuckles. "Just nice to know my faith in people to care about each other isn't completely misplaced," she sighed, her smile faltering more than she was comfortable with since she had just now managed to stop crying.

"C'mon, that's enough of that," Eliot snapped at her then, but by no means in a cruel way. "You're not sittin' here moping all day over a guy that _you_ can floor with one punch," he told her with a smirk that made her smile too.

"That _was_ cool," agreed Parker. "For that you should get like double dessert or something," she grinned. "But only so long as there's enough for me too," she added seriously.

"There's dessert?" Marissa visibly brightened at the idea of drowning her sorrows in sugar and cream.

"There's a whole meal downstairs, that I have spent hours cooking," Eliot told her.

"He is the best at cooking," agreed Parker, gesturing for Marissa to follow as she headed for the door, "and I am starving!" she added, practically running down the stairs when the door was opened and the smell of delicious treats wafted up to meet her nose.

"What d'ya say, Kennedy?" Eliot smiled at her, offering her his hand, "You good enough to eat with a table full of thieves?"

Marissa smiled her first genuine smile of the day then, not because what he said was funny, or because technically a hot guy was offering to take her to dinner. Nope, it wasn't even the promise of a good meal after a hard and trying day. What had her grinning, and taking his offered hand to be led down to eat, was the fact she was going to do so with a family, one that she felt a part of in the strangest way, despite only being blood-related to one member. This team loved each other more than some members of her real family cared about her, and they had accepted her in, for however long she wanted to stay. It was all kind of amazing to Marissa.

"Hey, mama," Hardison smiled warmly as she appeared through the door. "Nice to have you come join us."

"Absolutely," agreed Sophie as she moved from the bar where she had been talking to Nate to take her seat at the dinner table.

"How're you doing, Missy?" asked her uncle, as he poured her a glass of wine, and she gratefully accepted Hardison's help with her chair.

"I'll survive," she told him with a smile. "Takes a lot more than a couple of idiots like them to bring a member of our family down for long, right?"

When Nate looked across at her then, he honestly wasn't sure if she was talking about their blood family, or this group of misfits around the table. In the end, he realised it didn't really matter as he raised his glass to clink against her own.

"To family," he said. "In all its forms."

"To family," she agreed, as Eliot and Parker appeared from the kitchen with plates full of delicious looking food, "by blood or bond."

_To Be Continued..._


	11. Epilogue

**A/N: Thanks to everyone who stuck with this throughout the past week and a half, and especially to everyone who took the time to leave reviews - you're awesome.**

_**(For disclaimer, etc. - see chapter 1)**_

Epilogue

Nate shifted awkwardly in his seat, staring down a camera that made him feel oddly nervous. It wasn't who he was going to see and talk to that was bothering him, after all Marissa was his niece who he loved dearly. They had kept in touch over the past six months since her visit, though the webchat thing was relatively new and they'd been sticking to disposable cell phone calls in between. Hardison had the idea about not letting Marissa keep in contact through any means that might be tracked, when it became obvious Nate would want to keep in touch, and things with Moreau got deeper and messier. Today was a special occasion, Christmas Day, an event that Marissa had actually asked to come spend with her uncle, something he had been forced to decline no matter how much it hurt.

Marissa's safety mattered more to Nate than even his own or that of his team. She wasn't like them, not a thief, and he wouldn't allow her to become a victim, not again. She had stayed in Boston for two weeks after the day they busted her fiancé, Bryan Winters, for his crimes. Though she would have none of the blame pinned on him, no fake charges brought to his door, even when his grifter girlfriend's dodgy career took a dive, Marissa had agreed to let Hardison work his magic on other records. Her apartment was her own, no chances of Bryan taking that, or any money from the account they shared. By the time she headed home, the team had ensured that any part of her life they could save from Bryan's interference was done. Sure, Nate had sent his niece home lacking a fiancé, but she had gained four very good friends, maybe even family members in a way, and perhaps less seriously a wardrobe full of clothes that Sophie had loved helping her buy during her stay!

Bryan was long gone now, they had made sure of it. Hardison kept tabs on him, and tracked the guy as he ran clean out of the state to save his own hide. Clearly he either didn't believe Marissa when she said he'd be safe, or he was scared Erica would come back and ruin him. Whatever the case, he was out of Marissa's life, and that suited Nate and the rest of the team just fine.

"What's happening, Hardison?" asked the mastermind then as he checked his watch. "I thought we were doing this now?"

"Can't make a connection when there's nothing to connect to," the younger man told him with a shake of his head, sat at his desk by the vid-screen. "Ah, here we go, she here," he grinned suddenly, hitting a button and rushing around behind the counter to join the team.

"Hey guys!" Marissa smiled and waved from where she filled the vid-screen at last. "Merry Christmas!"

They all replied cheerfully, Uncle Nate in the centre with Sophie stood by him, her arm around his shoulders. To one side was Hardison, waving like a kid, and on the other Eliot held Parker who was sat across his lap. This was Marissa's happy family, that she was so proud to be a part of in some small way. She loved them all.

"How're you doing, Missy?" asked Nate as he stared at her.

She was smiling like it was going out of style and it warmed his heart to see it. The baby he had held in his arms nearly thirty years ago was a grown woman now, but he loved her just as much as he ever had and worried about her too. Everything that had happened six months ago with Bryan seemed forgotten as she answered him.

"Oh, everything's very, very good," she enthused, giggling like the teen he remembered from years ago. "In fact, I kinda have a favour to ask you guys," she told them.

"What kind of favour, sweetie?" asked Sophie curiously.

"Does Eliot need to kick ass again?" asked Parker. "'Cause technically we're supposed to be taking Christmas off... even though we were working just yesterday," she said, making a face, especially when the hitter shushed her.

"No, no badness, I promise," Marissa smiled still at the five curious faces looking back at her. "I was wondering if you'd all be willing... to come to my wedding?" she squeaked, flashing the back of her left hand at the camera.

A relatively small diamond sparkled upon her ring finger, underwhelming Parker more than anybody else.

"Again?" she sighed. "What's this guy done wrong?"

"No, no, Parker," Marissa told her immediately that everything was fine. "Trust me, this one's a keeper," she said, leaning in closer to the camera and whispering. "I had Hardison run a background check," she told them.

Nate looked to the hacker with a glare, not happy that the hacker seemed to know more about his niece's new man before he did. He failed to hold the expression long.

"Hey, she asked me to stay quiet, man," Hardison explained. "And ain't you at least happy we know he's cool before she gets in deeper?" he checked.

"From all that I've heard he is a nice guy," agreed Sophie.

"Seems to treat her decent," shrugged Eliot, as Nate's eyes travelled along the row of his team-mates, his eyes getting wider by the second as he realised that every one seemed to know everything about this mysterious new fiancé before him.

Marissa was oblivious, having moved away from her camera a while, and suddenly appearing again, her hand clutching that of a young man.

"C'mon, they don't bite!" she was insisting, as she sat said man down beside her and got him to look into the camera. "Uncle Nate, Sophie, Hardison, Eliot, Parker..." she gestured, "I'd like you to meet Luke," she introduced, as the guy beside her raised his hand in a vague and nervous wave.

"Hi," he smiled awkwardly. "It's nice to 'meet' you all."

Immediately they had greeted him back and shared similar sentiments, Luke was muttering about leaving her to her webchat alone. It was obviously embarrassing for the guy to be presented to Marissa's family and friends in such a way, and he clearly felt he was intruding. The look on Nate's face probably didn't help, but then he was kind of shocked by the turn of events.

"He looks nice enough," Parker shrugged easily.

"Oh, you would love him, Parker," confirmed Marissa. "He's a locksmith," she explained.

"_The_ locksmith," checked Nate, recalling his niece's skill with picking locks that she had said came from such a person.

"Yup, that would be him," she confirmed, making sure he was gone from earshot before she continued. "After that whole mess six months ago, I wanted my locks changed, so I called him. We got to talking and found we had things in common," she shrugged. "Y'know he wanted to ask me out before but obviously I was with Bryan and... well, then I wasn't."

"We're so happy for you, sweetie," Sophie told her.

A second later, an oven timer went off somewhere in the kitchen, startling everyone.

"Duty calls," said Eliot as he encouraged Parker off his lap so he could get up. "Good to see ya, Marissa. You take care, babe, okay? Have yourself a good Christmas," he winked. "And remember what I told you if that guy ever does screw you around."

"Yes, sir," she mock-saluted him, and waved to Parker as the pair disappeared out of view.

"Hey, we should maybe go too," suggested Hardison, tapping Sophie on the arm. "Finish setting that table, maybe?"

"Oh yes, right," agreed the grifter, quickly kissing Nate's cheek before she and the hacker walked away, saying goodbye and Merry Christmas to Marissa as they went.

It was quite obviously a deliberate manoeuvre to leave the two alone to talk. Sure, they were all family in a special way, but these two were the real blood relatives and they probably would appreciate a private conversation of some type. Nate in particular was not good at expressing himself at the best of times, and in front of an audience, well, that just made it all the more difficult.

"I'm so glad you're happy, Missy," he smiled at her, genuine in looks and tone.

"I really am," she agreed with a grin, though even through the webcam she could tell he wasn't completely sold on her latest engagement. "I know it's fast, me and Luke, but... it feels right," she told him honestly, willing him with her eyes to understand. "It's like the Prince Charming I was waiting for finally showed up."

Nate could have argued, but this was Marissa and it was Christmas. After all she had been through, he only wanted her happiness, and he knew from experience how rare and fleeting that could be. Once bitten, he was glad she had the good sense to get Hardison to look into Luke before jumping in head first. It certainly seemed this guy could be a good one, since apparently he had almost been more-or-less waiting for Marissa whilst she was dating someone else.

"I really hope it works out for you," Nate assured his niece. "All I ever want is for you to be happy."

"I could say the same," she smiled genuinely. "but I already know you are. You found a new family."

"Missy, that doesn't mean..." he shook his head, not wanting for her to think even for a moment that she mattered less just because his team had become more. "You know, I still love you," he promised her.

"Of course, and I love you too, Uncle Nate," Marissa swore to him. "Always," she confirmed, with happy tears in her eyes this time, rather than all those of sadness she had shed too many of during her visit months before. "And you'll be here for my wedding, right? All of you?" she checked.

"I... I hope so," Nate faltered some when it came to answering her. "We have some business to take care of soon. There's a chance it's going to get messy."

That brought a frown to Marissa's face that he pretty much expected. Nate had to make her understand how things stood, though he wasn't prepared to have her know anything that might put her in any real danger. Where Damien Moreau was concerned, you just didn't take chances.

"How messy?" she asked, and he was about to argue when she suddenly closed her eyes a moment and shook her head. "Wait, don't tell me," she insisted. "It's probably safer if I don't know, right?" she looked to him for confirmation then and her uncle nodded once.

"Right," he agreed, glad she understood, but at the same time hating that his team were facing something so bad he couldn't even mention the name involved to his beloved niece.

"Don't worry, I know you can deal," smiled Marissa. "You're the best at what you do, the whole team, but most especially you, Uncle Nate."

That brought a wide and genuine smile to his face then.

"You really have that much faith in me, don't you?" he said, with apparent astonishment that Marissa just shrugged off.

"Always have, always will," she assured him. "It's good, it means I don't have to worry about you too much."

Those words were almost enough to make Nate's smile falter, though he rallied and held it together long enough she wouldn't notice. When it came to the normal everyday jobs, he rarely worried that his crew were not good enough to complete the task at hand. Through times when each con was more elaborate than the last, he still had complete confidence in the team to just do what they did best and get the job done. When it came to Moreau, well, he told them everything would be fine, but inside panic bubbled all too often. Marissa was just one more person to hide that from, just for a while longer.

"So, when is this wedding of yours going to be?" he asked her, a deliberate subject change, which he hoped she wouldn't take the wrong way.

He counted on the usual female giddiness about such things to overtake everything else. Thankfully, he bet right again.

"It's only going to be a small ceremony, so we're planning for March," she told him with a giggle. "It's easy to remember; Wedding March, get it?"

Nate smiled at her aide memoire and at the way she told him about it, so ridiculously happy.

"We'll be there," he told her. "I promise."

Perhaps he shouldn't have given his word like that, not when he had no guarantees of making it through the coming game against Moreau. Nate made it okay in his head by rationalising that if all else failed he had Marrisa to fight for. If that wasn't enough to help him win then nothing was.

"Okay, well, I should go," his niece said then, whispering something off camera to Luke apparently, before looking back again. "Merry Christmas, Uncle Nate," she told him again, blowing a kiss.

"Merry Christmas, Missy," he responded in kind, waving until she finally severed the web connection.

Nate sat staring a moment at the black vid-screen, before picking himself up and heading over to the dining table. Hardison and Sophie had done a wonderful job with the place settings, whilst Eliot and Parker were filling every available space with plates and dishes of every kind of Christmas food.

"You okay?" asked Sophie, as she put her hand to Nate's arm and got his attention.

"Sure, yeah," the mastermind confirmed, as he leaned in to kiss her cheek with a smile. "Eliot, this all looks delicious," he told the hitter, whilst helping Sophie with her chair and then taking his own seat.

"You did good, man," confirmed Hardison as he sat down too.

Eliot missed doing the gentlemanly thing with Parker as she pulled up her own chair and immediately started picking up things she wanted to eat. He only rolled his eyes and smiled as he sat down himself, thanking the others for their compliments and telling them to dig in already.

Nate sat at the head of the table, staring at each of his new family in turn. Sure, bad things were coming, every day and for all of them, especially when they took on Moreau. For today, they were all here and all happy apparently, not just the crew that had become his family, but also Marissa and her new fiancé back home.

Sophie caught the faraway look in her man's eyes and the smile curving his lips. She could read him like a book these days, perhaps even easier than any mark she had to fool. Reaching for her wine glass, she tapped it a moment for everyone's attention, then raised it to the centre.

"A toast," she told them, as they all reached for their own drinks. "To family," she said, with a smile especially for Nate.

"To family," everyone else agreed, clinking their glasses together.

The mastermind nodded a thanks to his grifter before whispering;

"By blood or bond."

The End


End file.
